Formula One is a team sport, which means that more often than not a driver's most significant rival is his teammate. But how do you make two rivals work together? And where is the line crossed between a healthy competition to a destructive feud? Atlas F1's Richard Barnes looks at some of the interesting pairings for 2005, and analyses the chemical balance among them

It's as well that Formula One consists of two-driver teams for, if solo drivers were the norm, comparisons between the relative strengths and weaknesses of drivers would become almost impossible. Fair or otherwise, the performance of a driver relative to his teammate is the benchmark most commonly used in F1 analysis.

Recent F1 history has been both dogged and enriched by the fireworks unleashed when teams put together the wrong type of teammate chemistry. The two most infamous examples are the bitter feuds between Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet at Williams, and the explosively hostile combination of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna at McLaren during the late 1980s. As much as these intense rivalries may have unsettled the teams, they made for the most thrilling and cut-throat on-track battles. All entertainment relies on conflict, and the open animosity between uncooperative stable-mates has done much to elevate F1 to its current status of global popularity.

The 2005 F1 season will represent a major upheaval in driver pairings, with most teams sporting new line-ups. As the season develops, it will become clear which teammates are working well together for the benefit of their employer, and which pairings view each other as their own worst enemies and most bitter rivals. For the fans, there is the added attraction that the new combinations will allow for a whole new set of teammate comparisons and benchmarks.

The only two teams who look set to feature unchanged driver pairings are Ferrari and BAR-Honda. In Ferrari's case, it's both a blessing and a curse. The Maranello-based outfit thrives on continuity and co-operative team spirit. A young upstart, willing and able to challenge Michael Schumacher at every turn, would unsettle the team's sense of harmony. As much as it would delight the fans to see Schumacher facing a stern internal challenge, it's not likely to happen while the multiple World Champion racks up record after record for his employer.

For BAR, no news is good news. The team's leading Championship challenger, Jenson Button, has faced a daunting array of teammates since his precocious entry into the top ranks, including Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and Jacques Villeneuve. While Takuma Sato has the potential to outrace Button on occasion, he doesn't represent the same threat as the Englishman's former teammates. At this stage of his career, a season of stability will suit Button well. It will allow him to concentrate on beating rivals from other teams, rather than merely showing well against his own teammate to justify his place in the field.

For the rest of the grid, it's all change. The most immediately intriguing match-up is incumbent Kimi Raikkonen with team newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya at McLaren. A truly volcanic teammate battle needs a race-winning car. If McLaren can sustain the progress since the unveiling of the improved MP4/19B, the 2005 car should be a potentially race-winning machine.

Both Raikkonen and Montoya had valid (and missed) opportunities to dethrone Michael Schumacher in 2003. With 2004 lost to Schumacher's dominance, both McLaren drivers will be acutely aware of the need to maximise every opportunity in 2005. Neither driver is getting any younger, and any F1 driver only has limited chances to win the WDC. If either (or preferably both) of the McLaren teammates gets even a sniff at the title next season, it could ignite a new rivalry of Senna-Prost intensity.

Ostensibly, Montoya seems the more likely candidate to commence hostilities, with his aggressive all-out style and the precedent of his strained relationship with current Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher. However, Raikkonen has lost much of the ‘ice man' reputation that he gained during his first couple of seasons. The recent stress of uncompetitive machinery and disappointing results has seen the Finn snapping at marshals and team engineers alike. And that's with the mild and non-confrontational David Coulthard as teammate. Adding Montoya into the mix could rattle the Finn more than he'd care to admit.

The other current Williams driver, Ralf Schumacher, will probably be joined at Toyota by disgruntled Renault cast-off Jarno Trulli. Both drivers have a reputation for fragility and inconsistency, although Trulli has done much to remedy that with his excellent form in 2004. Both will be under great pressure at Toyota. The Japanese giant is clearly impatient with the lack of results, and the humility and moderate expectations of their first two seasons in F1 is rapidly giving way to frustration and increasing demands for immediate improvement.

It's not an environment in which either driver is likely to feel comfortable. However, it's also not an environment that will drive a wedge between the two. The car is unlikely to challenge for anything higher than the minor points-placings, and both drivers will feel the pressure of expectations from the team management equally. Without the cherry of a realistic WDC title to aim for, Schumacher and Trulli could form a mutually supportive and harmonious relationship at Toyota.

Trulli's ex-partner Fernando Alonso remains as Flavio Briatore's rising star and Champion-in-waiting at Renault. Recently, Renault has featured the most balanced and competitive driver pairing on the grid. Alonso's breakthrough triumph at Hungary in 2003 was countered by Trulli snatching the team's sole win so far in 2004, at Monaco, and it's a toss-up to decide which driver will fare better on any race weekend. For all his ‘impatient rising star' status, Alonso is remarkably unfazed when outperformed by his teammate, and usually bounces back the next race. It's a quality that will serve him well in 2005, as new teammate Giancarlo Fisichella is one of the most intimidating in the sport.

Fisichella himself will be under tremendous pressure, even without Alonso's speed to contend with. The Italian has ritually demolished his teammates in recent years, even talented drivers like Jenson Button. However, that is cold comfort to a driver when his car is barely capable of making the top ten, let alone challenging for podium positions and victories.

Fisichella has confirmed, time and again, that he can make the most of poor machinery. It's yet to be confirmed how he would fare in a Championship-challenging car. The 2005 Renault probably won't be the class of the field, but it's the best drive Fisichella has had in years, if not his entire career. Many felt that Fisichella and fellow rookie Ralf Schumacher didn't do justice to the Jordan during their debut season together in 1997. The Italian will want to set the record straight on that score. Additionally, he will need no reminder that competitive drives are rare opportunities, and that 2005 may be the only legitimate chance he will get to fulfil his potential.

There will be an added edge to Fisichella's performances in 2005. Although the Renault drivers will probably maintain a cordial relationship, this is the match-up with the greatest potential to for reputation damage.

The wild card in the 2005 field is Mark Webber at Williams. Like Fisichella, the Australian has dominated all his teammates in marginal machinery. And again like Fisichella, his graduation to a truly competitive drive will be one of the highlights and talking points of the season. Where the two differ is that Webber is joining an unsettled team that has lost development momentum and both of its established drivers.

Nevertheless, a Williams seat is traditionally considered one of F1's plum drives, and it's still undecided who will partner Webber in 2005. The allocation of the second Williams seat will be a key factor in setting the scenario for Webber's long-awaited transition to a winning team. A number of possibilities have been mooted, and only one thing seems certain – Williams will not bet the farm on Webber, with a testing journeyman in the second car. Neither Marc Gene nor Antonio Pizzonia has impressed in Ralf Schumacher's absence, so Williams will doubtless look for a more highly rated teammate for their new Australian star.

Whoever Williams choose, he will be more challenging than any of the teammates that Webber has faced so far in his F1 career. The sport's observers have been itching to see Webber in a situation that would either confirm or debunk the massive potential he's shown in his first couple of seasons. 2005 will provide a definitive answer.

Despite all the driver and team changes, the key to a successful and thrilling season will lie in one or more teams finding an answer to Ferrari/Bridgestone dominance. Still, even if the red cars and Michael Schumacher continue to overwhelm all opposition, the all-out scrap for ‘best of the rest' honours should make 2005 a memorable and unpredictable season.

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