F1 2025: The teammate wars that really matter
The first law of the paddock hasn’t changed in 75 years: beat the person in the same car. Titles, contracts, reputations — all of it gets filtered through the garage divide. With mid-season swaps, a couple of stingers from the stewards, and rookies thrown into the deep end, the 2025 head-to-heads are already telling some sharp stories.
McLaren
Lando Norris 10-8 Oscar Piastri (Sprint: 1-2)
On raw pace, this pairing has been one of the best watches in F1. Norris kept Piastri at arm’s length in their first two seasons together, but 2025’s MCL39 hasn’t come to Norris as easily. Piastri’s consistency is piling the pressure on, even if the race-day ledger still tilts Lando’s way.
Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton 3-13 Charles Leclerc (Sprint: 2-1)
The blockbuster duo has been all velvet gloves off track, iron fists on it. Leclerc’s been razor sharp on Sundays, banking a heavy head-to-head lead, while Hamilton’s sprint savvy keeps him on the board. Note the caveats: both were disqualified from China and both failed to finish at Zandvoort, blurring the pure form line. Still, on balance, Leclerc’s set the pace in red.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen 2-0 Liam Lawson (Sprint: 1-0)
Max Verstappen 15-1 Yuki Tsunoda (Sprint: 1-1)
Red Bull’s revolving second seat hasn’t changed the central truth: Verstappen is a one-man benchmark. Lawson’s early-season audition next to the three-time champion was exactly as tough as advertised before Red Bull shuffled him back to Racing Bulls and drafted in Yuki Tsunoda. Max has remained Max; Tsunoda nicked one after Verstappen’s DNF in Austria, but the mountain remains steep.
Mercedes
Kimi Antonelli 0-18 George Russell (Sprint: 0-3)
This is what the big leagues look like when you jump in at 18. Russell, fresh from winning his 2024 intra-team duel with Hamilton, has been clinical against Antonelli. The Italian prodigy is learning at light speed, but the numbers are a reminder: rookies rarely bend F1 to their will on arrival.
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso 10-7 Lance Stroll (Sprint: 0-3)
Even at 43, Alonso’s racecraft remains the team’s compass. Stroll has tightened the gap compared to 2023-24, and cleaned up in sprints, but over the distance Alonso still tends to find the angles and the points. Stroll withdrew post-qualifying in Spain — another wrinkle in a battle that’s closer than headline narratives suggest.
Alpine
Jack Doohan 2-3 Pierre Gasly (Sprint: 0-2)
Franco Colapinto 5-7 Pierre Gasly (Sprint: 1-0)
Alpine’s season has been part academy, part triage. Doohan began the year alongside Gasly before the team pivoted to reserve driver Franco Colapinto after Miami. Gasly’s experience has largely told — he leads both rookie teammates — though he was disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for running underweight. Colapinto’s opening burst has been eye-catching, too, with a sprint win over his senior teammate.
Haas
Oliver Bearman 9-9 Esteban Ocon (Sprint: 2-1)
“Bearcon” came in with memes and has delivered meat-and-potatoes points. Ocon’s race craft versus Bearman’s youthful punch has produced a dead heat so far, with the Ferrari junior edging the sprints. For a reshaped Haas, this is a genuine 50-50 that could swing on reliability and pit wall calls as much as outright pace.
Racing Bulls
Isack Hadjar 1-1 Yuki Tsunoda (Sprint: 0-1)
Isack Hadjar 11-4 Liam Lawson (Sprint: 1-1)
Hadjar’s rookie campaign has been one of the quiet revelations of the year. He held his own alongside Tsunoda before Yuki’s promotion to Red Bull, then outscored Lawson handily when the Kiwi returned to the Faenza fold. Both Hadjar and Lawson failed to finish at Silverstone, but elsewhere the Frenchman has looked composed, quick and largely unfazed.
Williams
Alex Albon 11-6 Carlos Sainz (Sprint: 2-1)
Sainz brought four wins and big expectations to Grove; Albon brought hard-won authority and a deep feel for the car. The result is a genuinely intriguing tug of war. Albon leads the scoreline — they both DNF’d in Austria — but the margins have been fine, and strategy windows at Williams are deciding plenty.
Sauber
Gabriel Bortoleto 8-8 Nico Hülkenberg (Sprint: 2-1)
This is the quiet chess match of the midfield: Hülkenberg’s racecraft against Bortoleto’s polished junior pedigree. It’s level on Sundays, with the Brazilian rookie pinching the edge in sprints. Note: Hülkenberg was disqualified in Bahrain for excessive skid plank wear after finishing ahead on the road, and he didn’t start in Italy with a hydraulic problem. Strip the oddities away and it’s been tight, tidy and encouraging for Audi’s 2026 project.
The takeaways
– The old guard still bites: Alonso and Verstappen continue to set ruthless intra-team standards.
– Rookie reality checks: Antonelli’s learning curve is steep but expected; Hadjar and Bortoleto have impressed with maturity.
– Big-ticket duels deliver: Leclerc vs Hamilton is as serious as it sounded on launch day, with Charles ahead on Sundays.
– The midfield is messy by design: Haas and Sauber are too close to call, while Williams’ pairing might be the most undervalued of the lot.
Teammate battles don’t hand out trophies, but they decide careers. And in a season already reshuffled by promotions, penalties and the occasional hydraulic gremlin, the most telling storylines are still being written on the other side of the garage door.
