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 eight qualifying sessions completed for 1999, the differentials are on a roll. Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights. Britain Notables The Differentials for the British Grand Prix appear a week later, since I was on a holiday. Sue me! (and if you're ever in the vicinity of Monaco, do yourselves a favour and walk through the roads - it is absolutely beautiful, and you can still see the tyre marks left by those 300 kmph monsters that storm through the streets every year). Damon Hill. After the fiasco of the French qualifying, where Hill ended up over 4 seconds behind his teammate, there was practically nothing to tell the two apart. Still, Heinz Harald Frentzen finished the qualifying session with the higher grid position, albeit a mere tenth of a second from Hill. It only remains to be seen if Hill - who decided to continue racing until the end of the year - is capable of anything more than just a notch behind. Zanardi. After showing some promise (and hope) in outqualifying his teammate, Alex Zanardi has gone back a few steps, overwhelmingly outqualifying by Ralf Schumacher. Could this be a sign that Zanardi is giving up? The Arrows Pair. Could it be that Tora Takagi and Pedro de la Rosa were separated at birth? If to judge by how close they are on the grid time and again, it could be that two soul mates are finally reunited! The average gap between teammates in Silverstone was 0.463 seconds. This, compared with 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 eight seasons of 1999 stands on 0.575. The pairs of Stewart, Jordan, Sauber, Ferrari and Benetton have a differential of above the average.