For several years now, Atlas F1 kept an eye on the battle between teammates with a simple measurement: comparing the qualifying times of each driver against his teammate's. The new qualifying format has made the comparison somewhat difficult - potentially, every driver could be running with a different fuel load. Moreover, with only one lap each in two back-to-back sessions, small errors could divert the results of any comparison significantly. But, we believe that over an entire season all these factors even out and the overall qualifying differentials between teammates remains the best tool to compare the natural capabilities of the drivers. So, with a few charts and several observations, it's time to see who's hot and who's not...

With the first double qualifying session completed for 2004, the differentials are once again on a roll! Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights.

Australian Notables

• Setting the Record Straight: Other than those rookies who debuted in Melbourne, the 2004 Australian Grand Prix saw Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner post his best qualifying position to date (17th) while Takuma Sato equalled his previous best (7th).

• The rookies: Jaguar's Christian Klien and Jordan's Giorgio Pantano have qualified behind their experienced teammates but at Minardi rookie Gianmaria Bruni has thoroughly outqualified his teammate Baumgartner.

• Exclusions: The pairs of Toyota, Jaguar and Minardi were excluded from the Qualifying Differentials chart for the 2nd part of the session, since one driver in each team did not get to post a time.

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