Verstappen trails only Perez in this 2026 statistic

Midway through the first half of the season, it’s clear that a large gap has emerged between several teammate pairings. The duel between two teammates is the most interesting to keep an eye on, given those drivers have exactly the same machinery. Qualifying highlights differences, but in the race the balance of power can sometimes look very different.

At Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen is the better of his teammate in both qualifying and the race. There is a distinction, though. While Hadjar, on average, concedes a tenth in qualifying to the four-time world champion, the gap in the races is much larger. Data from the first half of the season show that Verstappen is on average 0.542s faster per lap in the race. In 5 of the 6 grands prix both finished, Verstappen was quicker than Hadjar.

The data aligns with Isack Hadjar’s words after the Hungarian Grand Prix. When asked about his first half of the season, he said he was happy with his Saturday performances, but that Verstappen still had something extra on Sundays.

The gap between Hadjar and Verstappen on Sunday isn’t the largest difference between two teammates. That distinction belongs to Cadillac. Due to many technical issues, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have only finished four grands prix together, but when they did, the Mexican was significantly faster. It stands at 3-1 in favor of Verstappen’s former teammate, with an average gap of 0.737s.

There are two other teams where the race-day gap is also large: Mercedes and Alpine. At Alpine, it’s no surprise that Pierre Gasly is much faster than teammate Franco Colapinto, but at Mercedes it can be called a surprise that Kimi Antonelli is 0.412s quicker than the more experienced George Russell. In only 2 of the 10 GPs where race pace could be reliably measured was the Brit faster than his younger teammate.

At other teams, the two drivers are much closer. The differences at Racing Bulls and Audi are minimal in particular. At these teams, the qualifying gaps are also negligible.

Ferrari presents a striking picture. Lewis Hamilton seems to have the upper hand there in 2026, but the underlying race pace tells a different story. On pure pace, the Monegasque was in fact faster than the seven-time world champion. Nevertheless, Hamilton has scored more points than his teammate and even appears to be the biggest challenger to Antonelli in the title fight.

One last striking statistic comes from Aston Martin. There, Lance Stroll is currently winning the race-pace duel against Fernando Alonso. It should be noted, however, that there is very little data available from Aston Martin’s first half of the season due to the many retirements for both drivers.