Qualifying Differentials
	Marcel Borsboom, Netherlands

Atlas F1 is going to keep an eye on the battle between team mates throughout the season by race and overall averages (again). The measurement is simple. We compare the intra-team difference in seconds on Saturday. Some may say compensation must be given in the favouritism between the number one and two seats within the team. We, on the other hand, do not grant that pardon. For better or worse, our analyses will be on the perfect world of egalitarian status in intra-team rivalry. With nine qualifying sessions completed for 1999, the differentials are on a roll. Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights. Austria Notables Damon Hill. The pendulum of Formula One. One day he's got the sunny side up, another he's got the it scrambled. In Austria, Damon was back to making omelettes, it seems, with his teammate, Heinz Harald Frentzen, outqualifying him by well over half a second, and out-performing him during the race. Do you think he is considering immediate retirement again?... Diniz. Pedro, the supermarket boy, Diniz outqualified Jean Alesi. Granted, there was nothing between the two - a mere 0.003 of a second - but while Alesi enjoys an image of a naturally fast driver, Diniz still suffers from the image of a rich boy whose dad bought him a drive. Images aside, Austria was yet another proof that the Brazilian is no less a driver than most of his counterparts on the track. The Arrows Pair. Tora Takagi must have read the Qualifying Differentials notes from the previous Grands Prix and decided it's time to put a stamp of authority. After a streak of qualifying sessions where he was inseparable from teammate Pedro de la Rosa, the Japanese opened a gap, outqualifying the Spaniard by 0.572 secs. We all await with bated breath to see how de la Rosa will retaliate in Germany... The average gap between teammates in Austria was 0.511 of a second. . This, compared with Britain's 0.463 seconds; France's 2.514sec; Canada's 0.588sec; Spain's 0.471sec; 0.671sec in Monaco; 0.601sec in San Marino; 0.446sec in Brazil; and 0.922sec in Australia. The overall average gap for the first nine rounds of 1999 stands on 0.392. The Ferrari pair are left out of the overall average differentials, due to Michael Schumacher's absence and Mika Salo making only one appearance so far in a qualifying session as a Ferrari driver.