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 eleven qualifying sessions completed for 1999, the differentials are on a roll. Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights. Hungary Notables Herbert. OK, so Johnny Herbert didn't outqualify teammate Rubens Barrichello, but he sure did qualify within a reasonable margin from the Brazilian - perhaps for the first time this season. Those 0.294 of a second separating the two might not have much of an effect on the overall average between them (where Barrichello leads the grid), but it might also be a sign that Herbert is somewhat getting over his mars, even if it's too little and too late... Salo. Finn Mika Salo said, a couple of weeks ago, that he has six different teams offering him a contract for next year. We sure hope he signed one of them before Hungary's qualifying... Hakkinen. if the average gap between the two McLaren teammates after Germany was 0.098sec in favour of David Coulthard (due to his French Grand Prix qualification), Hakkinen is slowly but surely eating this gap away - 0.075. He should be able to turn this average in his favour by the next race - although Spa being notorious for it's volatile weather could play a France on him, and make Coulthard open the gap even wider... The average gap between teammates in Hungary was exactly half a second. This compared to Germany, where the gaps was 0.588sec; 0.511sec in Austria; 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 eleven rounds of 1999 stands on 0.603.

Marcel Borsboom	© 1999 Atlas Formula One Journal.
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