How to manage team-mates in F1

The dynamics between team-mates in Formula 1 can make or break a team. Look at Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell at Williams, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost or Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at McLaren, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull and, latterly, Nico Rosberg and Hamilton at Mercedes: it's clear that having two so-called number one drivers can lead to fireworks.

During my four decades plus of F1, I have seen many different driver combinations at teams. Some worked well, some were average, some didn't go well at all but most were difficult to handle.

Take the Ralf Schumacher/Giancarlo Fisichella partnership at Jordan in 1997 as an example of how fickle team-mates can be. When Ralf was ahead, it was harmony, but when Fisi was ahead it was hell.

They were both at the same stage in their careers so the competition was tough. Ralf was no Michael, but he wasn't a bad driver. However, he lacked the ability to recognise the big picture and it had to be all about him.

In the engineering meetings, he would not be too forthcoming with information just in case Fisi would get an advantage out of it. Fisi was just a very competent driver doing the best he could and enjoying every minute of it.

The partnership at Stewart of Rubens Barrichello and Johnny Herbert in 1999 was great. They had confidence in each other, knew that neither of them was out to screw the other and were totally honest with the engineers in the meetings about what was going on and what they thought was required to address the situation to move forward.

As the saying goes, the first thing any driver must do is beat their team-mate. But that can be done with a whole range of different mental attitudes. If you aim to beat everyone, then you will, by definition, have beaten your team-mate. If you only focus on beating the driver in the other car, then you aren't looking at the big picture.

Taking this to the extreme, if for some reason a driver has too easy a team-mate it can mean that he doesn't dig as deep as he possibly could because beating them is too easy. I know a real dedicated sportsman shouldn't allow that to happen and should go out and find their own level but I'm afraid it does.

What any team wants is team-mates that get on so you have harmony in the team. But that can go too far because it can lead to the hunger disappearing in the drivers, and if that happens the ultimate results suffer.

The big pay day for any team, and usually its staff, is winning the constructors' championship. To do that, you need two top-class points scorers. If you can do that, then usually the drivers' championship will be won by one of them. But this is where the friction can be created, and with enough of that you get the fireworks.

If you employ a topline driver who will approach things selfishly and focus on winning the drivers' championship paired with a Mr Nice Guy that causes no aggro and is just pleased to be there then you can say goodbye to the constructors' championship. But you will have a much easier life as driver management will not be much of a problem. It's really not simple.

Let's have a look at some examples of a team's ideal driver line up in terms of how the thought process would work were I in charge. For this exercise, money is no object and the available drivers are those racing in 2016 and the new arrivals for '17. So who would I choose as team-mates if I could select anyone?

Inevitably, the team I was working for would make a big difference. So I'm going to look at three scenarios, all of which are based on getting the maximum points available. My rule is not to go down the line of a number one and number two, but two drivers of similar ability even if that does create some challenges in managing them.

AT THE FRONT

Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen

Mercedes is a team where winning is the norm and anything less is a failure. It needs drivers with out and out hunger and selfishness and ruthlessness in abundance. There is no room for nice guys.

If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, remember a team of the size of Mercedes has the depth that means it doesn't need to be led by a driver. It simply needs somebody in the cockpit able to deliver the results every time they get in the car.

The only thing you need from the two drivers is that they respect each other and don't focus on what each other is doing. They need to remember that every other driver on the grid is the competition, not just the guy in the garage next door.

Hamilton and Verstappen are the quickest two drivers out there at the moment and are at different points in their career. They will overlap for a few years, but when Hamilton gets past his sell-by-date, Verstappen should be at his peak so you should not have the problem of both drivers reaching the end at the same time.

IN THE MIDFIELD

Williams: Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas

Williams is a top midfield runner that should be challenging for podiums, so the objectives are different to that of a top team like Mercedes.

You could say that Williams has let go of Hulkenberg in the past, and is expected to do the same with Bottas - but that's about the politics and the financial realities of F1.

Bottas has yet to show his true talent on a regular basis, while Hulkenberg is a driver who has been overlooked on far too many occasions. But they have a decent bank of experience and know how to motivate a team and give the kind of technical feedback Williams needs.

For too long, this team hasn't listened properly to the drivers, and it probably hasn't understood why it has been going backwards.

These two drivers will push each other and you can be sure that when they are in a points-scoring position, they won't get over-excited and will bring the car home.

AT THE BACK

Sauber: Pascal Wehrlein and Felipe Massa

Sauber is currently at the back of the field, and should be aiming to nick points finishes here and there as it builds up again.

Massa, who raced for Sauber for three seasons early in his F1 career, has the experience the team needs to help with the technical direction.

It doesn't have comparable simulation tools to those it is racing against and has budget limitations, so ensuring Sauber goes in the right direction is vitally important.

Massa would bring Sauber consistency, and as a team it would have someone to believe in. He would also help Wehrlein to mature and understand what F1 is all about.

With Wehrlein, Sauber would have an up and coming driver who would wring the car's neck given the opportunity. This would bring it the odd result that would be a bit unexpected.

For the future, he could grow with the team and that is what Sauber should be all about, an arm around the shoulder when he needs it wouldn't do any harm.

It sometimes seems a surprise to some teams that team-mates end up at war with each other. Take the Alonso/Hamilton episode in qualifying for the Hungarian GP in 2007, when Alonso delayed his exit from the pits to hinder Hamilton's hopes of pole position. McLaren was in shock for a long time after that and tried to find excuses for what happened, but to the outside world it was pretty simple: Alonso had the opportunity to have one over on Hamilton and took it with open arms.

To manage drivers with equal status is never easy, but my way of doing it would be to sit them both down with their engineers and number one mechanics before the season starts and list the races - starting with the drivers' home races - and then splitting the season up so that each driver had priority for an equal number of races during the season.

When it comes to the British GP, which I am sure would be Hamilton's choice, he would have priority over everything from:

1) A development part that there was only one of

2) Timing for leaving the pits in qualifying

3) Strategy in both qualifying and the race

4) Track position should the need arise for a driver to pass another driver to make his strategy work

5) If there was only one boiled egg left for breakfast he would have the choice to have it or give it away!

Basically, you need a situation where everyone - and that includes the crew as much as the driver - goes into a race weekend knowing where they stand and then there are no surprises for anyone.