Nobody crushes his teammate like Verstappen in 2025

20:02, 16 Sep

Updated: 20:08, 16 Sep

byTim Kraaij

Max Verstappen is by far the best driver when looking at head-to-head duels in 2025. Only George Russell can somewhat measure up to the four-time world champion.

In the head-to-head duels at Red Bull Racing, there is no match for Max Verstappen. After Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon and Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda also have to face their reckoning this year. Verstappen has not lost any qualifying or race duel to his teammates in 2025 and the difference in contributing to the team's points is gigantic.

No other driver within their team is as dominant as Max Verstappen in 2025. The Dutchman is ahead 13-0 in the qualifying duel with Yuki Tsunoda and the average difference between the two is 0.551s. No other driver pairing is as far apart as the Red Bull Racing drivers are.

Max Verstappen	2025	Yuki Tsunoda
12	Race duel	0
194	Points	9
13	Qualifying duel	0
-0.551s	Average qualifying difference	+0.551s

Verstappen defeats Tsunoda even easier than Perez

The difference between Tsunoda and Verstappen is also larger than between Sergio Perez and Verstappen. Perez, in his last and relatively worst season next to Verstappen, had an average negative delta to the Dutchman of 0.498s. In previous seasons, the Mexican was adrift off Verstappen's pace by a four-tenths margin each year.

The difference in the race is possibly even larger. Verstappen has finished ahead of the Japanese driver in the twelve races where both drivers crossed the finish line for Red Bull Racing.

In points, the gap is also evident. In the fourteen Grands Prix they've raced together at Red Bull, Verstappen has so far scored 194 points, Tsunoda only has 9 points tally to his name. The reigning F1 champion has thus clinched more than 95% of Red Bull Racing's championship points.

Which drivers come close to Verstappen?

How unique what Verstappen does is, is also highlighted in the other intrateam duels. Only George Russell and Fernando Alonso somewhat approach Verstappen's dominance, but each fall short on their own level compared to the teammate.

Driver Duo	Race duel	Points	Qualifying duel	Average qualification difference*
Norris - Piastri	10-4	324-293	7-8	+0.030s
Leclerc - Hamilton	11-2	163-117	11-4	-0.165s
Russell - Antonelli	12-0	194-66	13-1	-0.369s
Alonso - Stroll	7-4	30-32	14-0	-0.333s
Gasly - Colapinto	5-4	13-0	7-2	-0.215s
Ocon - Bearman	7-5	28-16	8-5	-0.044s
Lawson - Hadjar	3-8	20-38	2-11	+0.146s
Albon - Sainz	11-1	70-16	8-7	-0.082s
Hulkenberg - Bortoleto	6-5	37-18	6-9	+0.073s

*The average qualification difference is calculated from the first mentioned driver. A '-' signifies that the first driver is ahead and thus faster than driver two. A '+' indicates that the first driver is lagging behind the second driver, and the second driver is thus faster.

For instance, George Russell lost one qualifying duel in Miami to Andrea Kimi Antonelli and the difference on Saturday afternoons is generally smaller: 0.369s. In the races, however, Russell has proved to be untouchable for the Italian.

Fernando Alonso is the superior man in qualifying for the Aston Martin team, but has lost points in races compared to Lance Stroll. The Canadian finished four times ahead of Alonso and even reached a higher point total than the two-time world champion.

Norris and Piastri keep the championship fight exciting

At McLaren, the situation is exactly reversed. There, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are evenly matched, which means that the championship fight in 2025 is still alive with McLaren and its drivers heading into each race as the favourites. No team boasts a small difference between their two drivers on Saturdays, and they also closely match each other on Sundays, too.

Hamilton disappoints at Ferrari

At Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, a similar scenario to McLaren's would be expected, but the Monegasque has held a firm grip over his teammate in 2025. In qualifying and especially in the races, Leclerc is much more superior to the seven-time world champion.

The text continues below the image.

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton in Zandvoort after the crash (3)

Lewis Hamilton after his crash in the Dutch Grand Prix - Photo: RacePictures

Hadjar emerges as the new Red Bull driver

At Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar shows why he is being linked to the seat next to Max Verstappen. In comparison to Liam Lawson, Hadjar is clearly the leader of the team as a rookie, with a podium in Zandvoort as a highlight. However, the data shows that this was no fluke: Hadjar is almost always the better of the two drivers at Racing Bulls.

Colapinto proves to be a better driver than Doohan

The duel at Alpine shows that Franco Colapinto is on an upward trend. The qualifying gap is smaller than it was between Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan, while Colapinto has also managed to finish ahead of Gasly multiple times in the races. However, due to the lack of performance in Alpine's car, it hasn't yet yielded any points for the Argentine.

Bearman gives Ocon a tough time

Esteban Ocon has the upper hand at Haas, but he's also having trouble alongside rookie Oliver Bearman. The Brit has managed to beat the veteran several times in qualifying and in the races, so the margins have remained very small.

Pierre Gasly	2025	Jack Doohan
3	Racing duel	0
7	Points	0
5	Qualifying duel	1
-0.362s	Average qualifying difference	+0.362s

Hulkenberg in trouble due to Bortoleto

Nico Hulkenberg is also struggling with his rookie teammate. At Sauber, it's even the young Brazilian who leads the way in qualifying. An impressive performance, considering Hulkenberg has crushed his teammate over a single lap in the past few years. Over a race, Hulkenberg is slightly more often the better one, but the difference is minimal.

Gabriel Bortoleto was better in qualifying this season than Hulkenberg - Photo: RacePictures

Albon leaves Sainz in his dust

At Williams, Carlos Sainz shows what he's good at over a single lap, but over the course of the season, he has been losing out to Alexander Albon in the races. In the standings, this results in a painful points difference for the man who was still competing for victories at Ferrari over the past two seasons.

How the internal F1 duels are tracked

In Formula 1, where you are largely dependent on your equipment, your teammate is the first person you need to beat. That will show that you, as a driver, get the most out of your equipment. Therefore, GPblog annually tracks the data of these duels to provide the reader with the right information.

To judge the duels as fairly as possible, only the moments when both drivers were in action are counted for the qualifying and racing duels. If one of the two retires due to a technical problem, this doesn't count as a point for the other driver. But should the driver be at fault for their retirement, due to a crash or other incident, then it does result in apoint for the opposite driver.

For the qualifying gap, the fastest times from the last session in which both drivers participated are taken. This way, the comparison is most representative, namely under almost the same circumstances. If driver 1 retires in Q1 and driver 2 in Q2, the times in Q1 are used as a reference for the comparison.

For the points, only the points collected by the drivers when the other driver also drove for the team are taken into account. So Max Verstappen raced fourteen Grands Prix together with Yuki Tsunoda. Verstappen's first two Grands Prix only count in his duel with Liam Lawson, for instance.

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