The F1 drivers losing their 2023 team-mate battles

The halfway point for the 2023 Formula 1 season is now upon us. That should’ve been lap 22 of the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix, but with Imola’s cancellation, it will come at the end of this weekend’s Hungarian race. 

For the first time since 2016 (not counting the disrupted 2020 campaign), the Hungaroring doesn’t lead into F1’s summer break, but its position as the halfway stage nevertheless provides a handy reference point for assessing how the drivers have been performing so far.

As has captured the headlines for the last week, Red Bull didn’t even need to wait that long to decide on Nyck de Vries’s F1 future. Given the lack of narratives at the head of the pack, even heading to a track that has thrown up crazy races in the recent past (think 2014, 2015 and 2021), most eyes will be trained on seeing how his ever-smiling replacement Daniel Ricciardo fares at AlphaTauri. 

PLUS: The five challenges between Ricciardo and Perez's Red Bull F1 seat

But there are intriguing driver performance subplots across the grid, even away from those that usually capture the most attention.  

While almost all the big hitters have tasted at least some silverware success so far this year (Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is the only driver from the ‘Big three’ squads – Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari – yet to have taken a podium), F1’s ‘Class A’ has of course expanded to include Aston Martin.  

And let’s not forget it was McLaren that ran Red Bull closest last time out at Silverstone, even though the lower-speed nature of the Hungaroring should in theory favour the AMR22 better than the high-speed loving MCL60. 

But at Aston, the focus has been Fernando Alonso’s impressive start to life at his fifth F1 team. Across the garage, Lance Stroll is also yet to stand on a 2023 podium. 

Stroll has been in Alonso's shadow this year, failing to stand on the podium

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The Canadian became one of the biggest stories in pre-season, when his cycling crash meant he  fractured both his wrists and a toe and missed all of pre-season testing as a result.

He returned to F1 action at the first race and delivered a remarkable sixth place. Then he was running well at the next round in Jeddah before an energy recovery issue put him out of the race. But since Miami, round five, Stroll’s gap to Alonso has become something of an issue for Aston – points-wise at least. 

Autosport understands it took until the following round in Monaco for him to be fully healed from his pre-season injuries, but Stroll’s points gap to Alonso has barely improved in the four races since he crashed repeatedly and retired in the late rain that would’ve surely meant a victory for his team-mate had Aston nailed its tyre strategy call.  

"This fighting spirit is something that characterises him [Stroll]. You have seen in the past – Lance had pole positions, podiums, so overall, he can do it" Mike Krack

The points percentage balance between team-mates provides a good benchmark for seeing how drivers really stack up at a squad.  

On this, right now Ferrari leads the way with Charles Leclerc having 89.2% of Sainz’s points. Sergio Perez’s 61% of Max Verstappen’s championship-leading total is part of the reason Ricciardo has been brought back from the sidelines. Red Bull fears losing a future constructors’ title to a team-mate points imbalance as it did in 2021 against Mercedes.  

Currently in 2023, Mercedes is ahead with George Russell providing 67.8% of Lewis Hamilton’s points. Stroll, though, has just 32.1% of Alonso’s total, which is the main reason why Mercedes sneaked ahead in the constructors’ standings. 

“You have seen in Canada how much he was fighting – from P16 [on the grid], he was fighting until the last corner, to the line [where Stroll nicked ninth from Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas],” Aston team boss Mike Krack tells Autosport.  

Since fully recovering from injury, Stroll's performances haven't lifted as expected

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“And this fighting spirit was also something we have seen in the beginning of the season. Half of [the season so far] he had the injuries. Where he was really fighting hard to be able to drive. And I think this fighting spirit is something that characterises him. You have seen in the past – Lance had pole positions, podiums. So overall, he can do it.” 

Aston has struggled on the higher-speed circuits F1 has visited of late, and his penalty for colliding with Pierre Gasly at Silverstone was poor. But Stroll’s 2023 problems centre on his qualifying performances.  

He’s missed Q3 four times with various tyre preparation problems and has been on average 0.603% slower than Alonso in qualifying using the supertimes calculation. This has all led to the impressive fightbacks Krack highlights, but that they’re necessary at all is the issue.  

Krack also has a theory for why Stroll has struggled relative to Alonso even after his recovery. 

“We should always keep in mind now that there was a three-day test in Bahrain where he did zero laps,” says Krack. “[He] jumped in the car in the first race with the injuries – this is very often forgotten. Where other drivers fill their toolboxes, learn about the car – these are things that he didn’t have.  

“So, I’m quite confident that going forward we will have the same amount of results [with Lance compared to Fernando].” 

The 2023 campaign is one of growing for Aston. The expansion of its Silverstone factory has just passed the completion and opening of its first phase, with finishing its new wind tunnel and the rebuild of the original Jordan facility set to come.  

Alonso has featured on the podium six times this season

Photo by: Patrick Vinet / Motorsport Images

It should be expected that mistakes such as its Monaco call to give Alonso mediums won’t happen again if it is going to be the serious F1 player all that investment implies.  

It might be awkward for Stroll given his father Lawrence chairs Aston and its road car entity, but if these gaps to Alonso persist, calls for a change will grow. Just as it has for Perez at Red Bull. 

But Stroll’s points balance average isn’t actually the worst on the grid right now. Excluding those teams where the second driver is yet to score (AlphaTauri and Williams, which we’ll get too), Kevin Magnussen’s 22.2% of Nico Hulkenberg’s nine points for Haas is the lowest.

To cover the rest, Oscar Piastri has 40.5% of Lando Norris’s haul at McLaren and Zhou Guanyu is putting in a quietly impressive campaign for Alfa Romeo, with 80% of Bottas’s total right now. 

Haas' mature approach aligns well with Magnussen’s attitude – see his “he was racing pretty hard… but who am I to complain about that?” comment on de Vries after their two Canada clashes

At Haas, Hulkenberg has also produced the team’s highest-profile moments, with his five Q3 appearances (Magnussen has one in Miami), Canada qualifying result before it was spoiled by his red flag penalty, and Austria sprint challenge to Red Bull.  

But, despite being the new arrival making the waves, there is little focus on Magnussen’s Haas position as there was with Mick Schumacher a year ago. 

This is because there hasn’t been anything like the same major crash damage bill for the team to worry about this time around – although Magnussen’s Melbourne wall strike was needless. 

But, in any case, Haas’s financial health has been massively improved by the signing of its title sponsor, MoneyGram, last year. There is just a focused, unruffled atmosphere at the American team right now, as it concentrates on solving its awful tyre degradation issue when the VF-23 becomes unsettled while running in traffic. 

Magnussen is lagging behind Hulkenberg at Haas this term but this is not a reason for concern

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh / Motorsport Images

That mature approach aligns well with Magnussen’s attitude – see his “he was racing pretty hard… but who am I to complain about that?” comment on de Vries after their two Canada clashes.  

The Dane had the most recent example of Haas’s engine unreliability at Silverstone, but the goal for the second half of 2023 would be to recapture the battling drives of Jeddah (against Yuki Tsunoda) and Miami (against Leclerc) and pair that resilience with clean weekends overall. 

At Williams, other than his Melbourne second red flag restart gaffe and Baku sprint qualifying crash, Logan Sargeant has not been piling up mistakes that can be chalked down to inexperience or a complete lack of ability at the top level.  

Last time out at Silverstone the American showed good race pace – particularly compared with Stroll – on his way to 11th, and he’s got public support from new Williams team principal James Vowles. While the Hungaroring’s twisty nature might make life harder for the blue squad this weekend, Spa’s upcoming long straights will be tantalising.  

It has since been revealed that Williams was running on lighter fuel loads during its starring practice results at Silverstone, but Albon still took the FW45 to a great race finish there, albeit aided by the timing of the safety car.  

If Sargeant can also score on the days when Williams gets big chances, he’ll finally move up and provide a better points balance against a team-mate that in recent days has been the subject of speculation on a possible Ferrari future…

Sargeant is enduring a tough rookie F1 campaign but has cut out the critical mistakes

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images