Team-mate battles of 2012!

[Firstgear]

Here's some numbers, based on their final points standings:

First by number of places ahead or behind (-) their teammate:

Vettel 5
Alonso 5
Raikkonen 5
Rosberg 4
Hulkenberg 3
Petrov 3
Perez 2
Hamilton 1
Maldonado 1
Vergne 1
Glock 1
Karthikeyan 1
Button -1
Senna -1
Ricciardo -1
Pic -1
de la Rosa -1
Kobayashi -2
di Resta -3
Kovalainen -3
Schumacher -4
Webber -5
Massa -5
Grosjean -5

Secondly, percentage of points relative to their teammate:

Alonso 228
Raikkonen 216
Rosberg 190
Vergne 160
Vettel 157
Maldonado 145
Hulkenberg 137
Perez 110
Hamilton 101
Button 99
Kobayashi 91
di Resta 73
Senna 69
Webber 64
Ricciardo 63
Schumacher 53
Grosjean 46
Massa 44

[rjbetty]

TEAM MATE COMPARISONS (from rjbetty's point of view)

RED BULL: Well I suppose it's Bieber, though it helps having your number one Beliebers Horner and Marko running the team.
FERRARI: Massa. Ok I'm not being at all serious tonight
McLAREN: James Allen's blog was interesting. But it's clear to see Lewis totally ran rings around Button this year. Deserved much more than a 2pt lead at the end.
MERCEDES: This one's trickier, but I gotta go for Michael. Apart from the end of the season, where he seemed to finally have had enough, with the age getting to him, Michael was the more impressive driver, and the final points standings between them are the most unrepresentative I've seen for a long time.
LOTUS: A tough one! But once Kimi got in his stride, and with Grosjean going off the rails in the second half, it's a marginal victory for Kimi, who scored over twice as much points in the end.
SAUBER: Perez, easy.
FORCE INDIA: The most interesting and difficult to predict before the season, in the end Hulkenberg easily took it, showing the most potential and scoring the most points.
WILLIAMS: My gosh, didn't Maldonado just totally wipe the floor with Bruno Senna, who not even once outqualified Pastor on merit?!!
CATERHAM: Kovalainen
HRT: de la Rosa
MARUSSIA: Glock, but a great effort from Pic, who also made few errors. Very impressive!

[zako85]

CATERHAM: Kovalainen

I would like to respectfully disagree. Kovalainen has been in the sport for six years. Petrov for three years. 2012 was Kovalalien's third year with the team, and likely the car was built to his liking. Petrov joined Caterham just days before testing started. In the first half of year, Petrov lost out some to Kovalainen in qualification, but was just as fast in the race. Towards the end of year Petrov was equal or better in qualification. Out of 18 races where both Caterham drivers started and where at least one of them finished, Petrov was ahead in 10 races. Petrov finishied ahead in WDC, and his 11th place finish in Brazil also put Caterham in 10th place in WCC. Even before Brazil, Petrov was higher in WDC. Petrov brings sponsors. Kovalainen is paid a salary. It's logical that Kovalainen lost his seat.

I would stop short of saying that Petrov clearly dominated. I think both Caterham drivers were roughly equal. If Button didn't ram Kovalainen's Caterham in Monaco, Kovalainen could have finished 11th or maybe 10th in that race. But Petrov is looking better considering he has less experience with the team as well as F1 overall.

[keysersoze]

I would like to respectfully disagree. Kovalainen has been in the sport for six years. Petrov for three years. 2012 was Kovalalien's third year with the team, and likely the car was built to his liking. Petrov joined Caterham just days before testing started. In the first half of year, Petrov lost out some to Kovalainen in qualification, but was just as fast in the race. Towards the end of year Petrov was equal or better in qualification. Out of 18 races where both Caterham drivers started and where at least one of them finished, Petrov was ahead in 10 races. Petrov finishied ahead in WDC, and his 11th place finish in Brazil also put Caterham in 10th place in WCC. Even before Brazil, Petrov was higher in WDC. Petrov brings sponsors. Kovalainen is paid a salary. It's logical that Kovalainen lost his seat.

I would stop short of saying that Petrov clearly dominated. I think both Caterham drivers were roughly equal. If Button didn't ram Kovalainen's Caterham in Monaco, Kovalainen could have finished 11th or maybe 10th in that race. But Petrov is looking better considering he has less experience with the team as well as F1 overall.

I'm a fan of both Petrov and Pic (poor me) so I followed the Caterham and Marussia intra-team battles closely. The qualifying results favor Kovalainen, 12-8. Heike was also a demon at the start and seems to have that sorted out better than the Russian. But, as you pointed out, Vitaly somehow found an edge. He seemed to be marginally quicker throughout a tire stint. Petrov's truly throws Jarno's performance against HK into sharp relief.

After getting his butt handed to him by Kubica during the first half of 2010, Vitaly came on, and was MUCH closer to Robert, at times outpacing him. In 2011, he essentially sent Heidfeld into retirement. In 2012, pitted against an on-form Kovalainen, who had been on the short list to move to either McLaren or Ferrari, Vitaly's stock seems to have risen, though the game of musical chairs for 2013 may not go in his favor.

I hope Caterham decides to retain him. Then, my two favorite drivers will be on the same team.

[rjbetty]

These are great Vitaly points guys - maybe I could change this nomination. I've always rated Petrov, especially last year, where he beat Heidfeld and Senna, and scored that podium. Basically he exceeded general expectations very well last year. This year he has done the same; it hasn't gone un-noticed how he has mostly been equal and probably overall better in the races! I should have given Vitaly more credit actually, especially since unlike Senna, I don't think he ever did ANY karting at all!! He only had a few seasons at all in cars before F1, so to actually be about +1.0sec off in 2010, about +0.7sec off in 20101and probably about +0.5sec off in qualifying this year (and better in the races probably) is actually really good.

It's always interesting to dig below the surface and be able to see how well some drivers are really doing, yet on the surface they are maligned and unrecognised. It will be extremely harsh if Petrov finds himself out of F1 after all this. I hope he gets the second Marussia seat. I don't care what nationality Max Chilton is; I only want him to get the Marussia seat if he is actually really talented (more Pic than di Grassi). But Petrov's experience and good reeeeace peeeace [David Coulthard's rendering of "race pace" which I just delight in hearing ] could prove to be Vitaly, er I mean vital, in securing a precious point for Marussia; especially with Caterham likely to take a step back, having decided to use an updated version of their un-stellar 2012 car next year and a lesser driver line-up to boot, and with HRT seemingly out of the game altogether...

[keysersoze]

We shall see rjbetty. Something strange seems to be afoot at Caterham. Giedo Van der Garde, who apparently brings a fair amount of cash and hopes to join the team, stated that he expected an announcement this week, but then mentioned that the team told him they have bumped the decision to an undisclosed later date. The speculation is that the infusion of cash brought on by Petrov's result in Brazil has complicated matters for the team. They may end of keeping either Vitaly or Heike. If they decide to draft Giedo to drive, he will rejoin his Barwa Addax teammate from 2011, Charles Pic. I think the Frenchman was marginally quicker that season. Still, two drivers with a grand total of one F1 year of experience does not sound particularly inspiring for the team.

As for Max Chilton, he had done very little in GP2 for a year and a half, then he came on strong. He's still quite young and could have the goods to make it. Of course, if he never gets past driving for a team like Marussia, we will never know.