Before any F1 driver aims to win a championship, the first driver they must defeat is their team mate. With two teams having line-ups consisting of world champions, and hot prospects being given chances with some big names, there’s a lot of intrigue regarding some of the team mate battles this season. With just the four Mercedes-powered teams: Mercedes, Williams, Force India and Lotus retaining their line-ups from last season (excluding McLaren’s one-off substitute) there will be a lot of line-ups in which predicting who will come out on top may well be tricky. Nonetheless, here is who I feel will beat their respective team mates in 2015 and who will be top of the 2015 F1 team mate battles.
Sauber: Marcus Ericsson vs Felipe Nasr
These are two drivers who I do not rate massively highly at all, so it is a bit of a tricky one for me. After pretty mediocre times in GP2 in both cases, both have found themselves driving for the struggling Sauber team in 2015. Whilst Nasr’s GP2 results were slightly better and more consistent, I feel that Ericsson’s 16 races last season will come in handy here, and that he will for the most part have the upper hand over Nasr. Who finishes higher in the standings may come down to a crazy race however, as I expect Sauber to pick up few points, if any. Ericsson.
Manor: Will Stevens vs Roberto Merhi
Both have a similar amount of F1 experience under their belt, having both driven for Caterham last season, but I have to look at last year’s Formula Renault 3.5 season for picking my victor here. I am going to make the assumption that Merhi will compete the whole season, something of which we are unsure of at the moment, but after his superb season in the 3.5 category last year where he nearly beat Carlos Sainz Jnr with the uncompetitive Zeta Corse team, and finished ahead of Stevens in the category, I feel that this can only go one way, but on paper, Stevens could get the upper hand in a crazy race. Merhi.
Lotus: Romain Grosjean vs Pastor Maldonado
Grosjean pretty emphatically beat Maldonado last season with his very impressive early-season form. Whilst the Frenchman’s form did dip a bit towards the middle of last season, I am expecting him to retain the upper hand here. Maldonado continues to keep crashing at times, but it has been far less frequent than his Williams days, he could well spring a surprise if he can get his race pace up and deliver more consistent qualifying results, but I feel that the result here will be the same as last season. Grosjean.
Toro Rosso: Max Verstappen vs Carlos Sainz Jnr
Toro Rosso has two very hot and young prospects in their cars this year. Both impressed in their respective categories last year but neither appears to be the finished product quite yet. Whilst Sainz is vastly more experienced in racing cars in general, Verstappen’s speed cannot be questioned. I think this may well be one of the closer battles this year, and may well come down to which one makes fewer mistakes. Verstappen.
Force India: Nico Hülkenberg vs Sergio Perez
Hülkenberg’s excellent first half of last season saw him hold off a resurging Sergio Perez, who showed some strong and consistent form towards the end of the year. However, despite the improved form of the Mexican, I am pretty sure that the result will be the same this time around; however the German must start showing some stronger results if he is to impress the big teams. Hülkenberg.
McLaren: Fernando Alonso vs Jenson Button
Alonso’s return to McLaren has got off the wrong foot straight away as he is missing the first race of the season after suffering a head injury during testing last month. Both world champion drivers are in form given last season’s performances, but this will almost certainly come down to reliability. Button’s smooth style may well come in handy, but assuming both will suffer the same unreliability rate, I fear that this will be relatively one-sided. Alonso.
Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel vs Kimi Räikkönen
In a stark contrast to the McLaren pairing, both drivers here are arguably coming off of the back of their worst seasons in F1. Whilst Vettel’s poor season was arguably more documented than Räikkönen’s, many well agree that Räikkönen in fact performed far worse than the German did. I feel that the Finnish driver will perform much better with a car he helped to develop in a team he has had time to get to know, whilst it is clear that Vettel is enjoying his new challenge at Ferrari, and that he is hungry to prove his critics wrong. Vettel is also entering the prime of his career now, and this may give him an edge. Vettel.
Williams: Felipe Massa vs Valtteri Bottas
Last season was a year of two halfs at Williams: Bottas had the clear upper hand in the first half of the season, especially in the middle part of the year, whilst Massa got his act together and produced some strong yet opportunistic results by the end of the year. This is one of the trickier battles to predict, as I expect the two to be close once again, but I feel that Bottas is certainly getting better with experience. Bottas.
Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo vs Daniil Kvyat
Like his successors at Toro Rosso, I am not convinced that Kvyat is quite the finished product, despite being quite clearly rather impressive. Beating the best driver of last season is by no means going to be an easy feat, but after all, I predicted Vettel to beat Ricciardo last season. I don’t expect that sort of upset this time though. Ricciardo.
Mercedes: Nico Rosberg vs Lewis Hamilton
Whoever wins this will probably be the World Champion. Mercedes were that far ahead last season and it only seems as if it will be worse this time around. Rosberg had the upper hand on Saturdays last year whilst Hamilton had the edge when it counted on the Sunday. It was scarily close at times between the two at times last season, and I expect it to be pretty close again, but I am pretty sure that Hamilton just has that extra bit of speed on a Sunday so I am predicting it to be two in a row for the British driver. Hamilton.
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