Formula 1’s Twitter today posted a telling teammate battles scorecard, after five Rounds of the 2023 World Championship, showing Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, trouncing their respective colleagues.
If you are Lance Stroll or Nyck de Vries the numbers do not make for good reading, as neither have been able to outqualify their teammates, which does not auger well in a sport where beating one’s teammate is Rule #1 for any driver, at any level.
Alonso has thus far handed Stroll a 5-0 drubbing and, quite honestly on current form it is hard to see the Canadian rich-kid bettering the veteran Spaniard unless he has an issue. The consensus among some in the paddock and pundits alike is that with a good car, Junior can be quick. But not so because his teammate finds another level in the AMR23 which Lance cannot.
Same story al AlphaTauri where Tsunoda who has upped his game – while yet to convince 100% he is on top oof it, he is getting there – while exposing De Vries, the Dutchman ill-at-ease in his first year as a full-time F1 driver.
The Japanese driver was largely outclassed by Pierre Gasly (now at Alpine) during their time together, Yuki has to step it up a notch and find reliability, with fewer histrionics.
So far so good as he has made it tough on De Vries, so much so that he has three races to show why he deserves to stay and not have Daniel Ricciardo, lurking in the RBR wings to make a return at the Dutchman’s expense, while at Aston Stroll wallows in his father Lawrence’s mercy.
Carlos Sainz is 4-1 up on Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari drivers’ battle. The Monegasque is generally better on one-lap pace than his Spanish teammate, but in race trim the story tends to be different between the pair. Carlos more solid than Charles on Sundays, would be a fair assessment.
At Ferrari-powered Haas, Kevin Magnussen is also 4-1 up, he is on returnee journeyman Nico Hulkenberg which suggests the German needs to work on his long game, although in the points race he lies ahead of K-Mag by virtue of 7th place in Australia.
The score is the same at McLaren where, as expected, Lando Norris is up on rookie Oscar Piastri. While Alpine newcomer, Gasly 3-1 is up on Esteban Ocon in the sister car, as is Alex Albon over rookie Logan Sargeant.
At runaway 2023 F1 world championship leaders, Red Bull, points leader Max Verstappen is up 3-2 on teammate Sergio Perez. Same story at Mercedes where Lewis Hamilton is up one against George Russell.
2023 F1 World Championship Standings after 5 Rounds:
