Nigel Mansell, pictured with Sebastian Vettel, knows about Number 1 and Number 2 drivers. Photo / Don Kennedy
There is an old adage in F1 that if you want to win, first you must beat your teammate.
For defending world champion, and championship leader Max Verstappen, that hasn't really been an issue in 2022, as he's conjured up eight race victories in 13 races, whereas his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez has won just once, albeit the prestigious Monaco GP.
Perez is 85 points behind Verstappen in the championship and expected to assist him to continue on his winning way if he can. In a recent interview, Verstappen reflected on what it takes to be a top F1 driver given they have all either won championships in other categories, or proven to be quick and accomplished.
"I think when a driver really comes into play, and what makes the difference, is in tricky conditions or when you are really fighting with another team, those last few percentages," he said.
"There are so many good drivers out there in the world, even people who are not in Formula 1. They might be driving in Endurance but they are also very good and just because of random luck or just circumstances they didn't get to drive in Formula 1.
"But the ones who are in Formula 1, between the good and the very good, is in these very decisive moments - if it's a rain race - or in general very difficult conditions, or a very important qualifying session, to be up there.
"That's when you can make the difference. Or score just a little bit more points than, let's say, your teammate."
Red Bull have a lead of 97 points over Ferrari in the Constructors championship, which for most teams is more important than the drivers' title.
Not only does Verstappen need to consistently score points in his bid for a consecutive world title, but he and Perez need to score more than Ferrari to give Red Bull its first Constructors title since 2013.
Even though Verstappen narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton to become world champion last year, Mercedes took its eighth consecutive Constructors title. Now they are only third, and the challenge from Ferrari has faltered in recent races.
But nonetheless, Verstappen and Perez will be expected to work together to bring home both titles. Verstapppen realises it's a team sport but gave the example of two footballers in a squad vying for one position in the team.
"You see the squad, 11 players on the pitch, but there are also people on the bench trying to get that spot. I think we work well together, we have a good relationship, also off the track we can have conversations about anything - sometimes it's really nice because you don't have to talk about racing and just talk about other stuff.
"He (Perez) is a great guy and it's nice as well for the team when the two drivers get along really well."
Harmony between teammates seems to be a common theme if you work through the various teams.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz get on very well at Ferrari. Leclerc is second in the championship, with three race victories, but some 80 points behind Verstappen, whereas Sainz is fifth, 22 points behind Leclerc with one victory at Silverstone.
But in recent races Sainz has begun to match the race pace of Leclerc, and that can cause tension and unease between teammates.
Sainz has described his second season with Ferrari as a "rollercoaster season, especially the beginning".
"It's been tough with this car. Two consecutive DNFs at the beginning dropped me out of the championship fight very early. Then I had a high peak with Canada and [winning at] Silverstone, then a low, then a high. But I'd much rather have the rollercoaster being as competitive as I am now in the beginning."
He has finished nine of the 13 races, and been on the podium six times including that maiden F1 victory at Silverstone. Lerclerc has been on the podium one less time, but has three race wins, starting in Bahrain for Race 1, Australia in Race 3 and more recently, Austria in Race 11.
Both drivers have been the victim of poor team decisions on the pit wall. Sainz was headed for a podium in France but the team opted for safety by pitting him for a second time, dropping him to a fifth place finish, while in Hungary, Leclerc felt comfortable on medium tyres, but the team pitted him to swap to the hard tyre and he finished sixth after starting from third.
Team principal Mattia Binotto is adamant his team is still on track for the second half of the season and wouldn't change anything.
"I don't think there is anything different we need to do," he told Motorsport.com.
"I think it is simply to continue on our journey of continuously improving ourselves step by step, focusing on each single race. I think we have the potential to win races at the moment. It's only a matter of making sure when we get to the chequered flag, we are in first position. But it doesn't mean we have to change our approach.
"As we said, there are no silver bullets, so I don't think we need to change ourselves. We proved we can do a good job."
The critics will say that in Hungary, for example, the team were headed for a 1-2 finish but through poor tyre choice and race strategy, instead it was fourth and sixth, beaten by Verstappen and both Mercedes.
The latter team is considered by many to be one to watch in the next nine races. Without a win for the first year since Nico Rosberg gave the team its first victory in the 2012 Chinese GP, Hamilton has finished second in the last two races and says he is a changed man after touring a number of African countries during his summer break.
"These past two weeks have been some of the best days of my entire life," Hamilton posted on Instagram.
"I'm not the same man I was before this trip, all the beauty, love and peacefulness I experienced has me feeling fully transformed. I connected with my roots and my history and I feel my ancestors with me now stronger than I ever have before. Namibia, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania thank you."
Mercedes started the season poorly, having produced a car prone to porpoising more than most teams, due to running too low to the ground.
George Russell, who replaced Valtteri Bottas at the beginning of the season, coped with the difficult car better than Hamilton, but the latter has finished ahead in the last three races and they are currently separated by 12 points, with Russell fourth and Hamilton sixth in the championship.
The two have worked well together and retained the respect evident at the start of the season, even though the new boy on the team with no race victories and only one pole position (in Hungary) was putting the seven-time world champion with 103 race wins and poles in the shade in the first part of the season.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has made it clear he doesn't want a repeat of the acrimony that developed between Hamilton and Rosberg in 2015 and 2016. When Rosberg beat Hamilton in 2016, he promptly retired, as he was not prepared to put himself through the mental torture he endured in beating Hamilton on his third attempt.
Bottas was never able to seriously challenge Hamilton at Mercedes, but Russell has proven to be less willing to play second fiddle like Bottas was prepared to, and Rosberg refused to.
"I think the biggest opponent for George and Lewis was the car, not the teammate or other drivers," Wolff told Motorsport.com. "They used different solutions and set-ups, even a lot on some occasions, with the aim of exchanging impressions and useful information to come out of the situation we experienced."
But Wolff knows that co-operative approach could change.
"When the objectives become races and championships, I will be able to tell you whether the respect I see today between the two will prove to be a predominant factor," he added.
"When playing for the highest stakes I think it's natural to have some tension, but if people fundamentally respect and esteem each other then it will never go too far."
In the cases of Didier Pironi and Gilles Villenueve at Ferrari in 1981, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell at Williams in 1987, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren in 1989, Fernando Alonso and Hamilton at McLaren in 2007, and Rosberg and Hamilton at Mercedes, teammate rivalry can divide team loyalty and destroy driver partnerships and friendships.
Mansell was at the British GP to see Sebastian Vettel do demonstration laps in the Williams that gave Mansell his world championship in 1992. Vettel drove it because he had bought the car. Mansell says it is only in recent times that he has come to understand why his former teammates didn't like him.
"91, 92 I was outright number one driver, that's why I was competing for the championships, but people forget that when I was driving for the teams up until 91, 92, I was the number two driver, driving with four different world champions," he recalled.
"But when you're a world champion, or multi-world champion, and then you're beating them in a number two car like I was with Nelson Piquet with Williams, he wasn't my best friend was he?!"
F1 returns this weekend for the Belgian GP at Spa. Last year only two laps 'racing' behind the safety car were possible because of torrential rain, and the forecast is for rain again this weekend, which according to Verstappen is when you notice what separates good drivers from very good drivers.
Verstappen is number one and a very good driver in the wet, and has his teammate in check, but the same can't be said for the Ferrari and Mercedes teammates. In addition, Alonso will resume racing for the Alpine team he didn't want, while Daniel Ricciardo will race for the McLaren team that doesn't want him. It should be a fascinating spectacle on arguably the best circuit on the calendar.
Sources: F1.com; Motorsport.com
