2004 Qualifying Differentials
By Marcel Borsboom, Netherlands
Atlas F1 Magazine Writer
For several years now, Atlas F1 kept an eye on the battle between teammates with a simple measurement: comparing the qualifying times of each driver against his teammate's. The new qualifying format has made the comparison somewhat difficult - potentially, every driver could be running with a different fuel load. Moreover, with only one lap each in two back-to-back sessions, small errors could divert the results of any comparison significantly. But, we believe that over an entire season all these factors even out and the overall qualifying differentials between teammates remains the best tool to compare the natural capabilities of the drivers. So, with a few charts and several observations, it's time to see who's hot and who's not...
With thirteen double qualifying sessions completed for 2004, the differentials are once again on a roll! Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights.
Hungary Notables
- Exclusions: The Sauber duo of Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella was excluded from the second session's differentials graph, because Massa did not set a time due to an engine replacement.
- Antonio Pizzonia: the Williams substitute driver, for the first time in a Formula One car at the Hungaroring, outqualified his experienced teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, despite Pizzonia running with 3 laps more fuel in his car.
- The Second Session: For some reason, the second session was very close among the teammates. In fact, the biggest gap was only 0.415 - between Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli - and even that can be put down to the slight rain that dropped while Trulli was on his fast lap.
- Ricardo Zonta: Despite being new to the one-lap qualifying format, Brazilian Zonta qualified very close to his Toyota teammate Olivier Panis.
The Elevator
This chart reflects the position changes between the first part and the second part of qualifying. Whether it has any meaning, we leave it up to you to decide...
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