Atlas F1

Qualifying Differentials

Australian GP Edition

No grid placements. No Williams versus Ferrari. No Williams versus anybody for that matter. It's qualifying differentials and we are going to keep an eye on the battle between teammates throughout the season by race and overall totals.

The measurement is simple. We will compare the intra-team difference in seconds on Saturday. Some may say compensation must be given in the favoritism between the number one and two seats within the team. We, on the other hand, will not grant that pardon. For better or worse, our analyses will be on the perfect world of egalitarian status in intra-team rivalry.

So, here we go. The season is an infant, but the differentials have begun. Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights (not to mention the same rights for their respective fans).

Melbourne Results
The Losers
Diferential in Seconds
The Winners

  1. Villeneuve. Not only did Villeneuve shatter the rest of the field, he dominated his teammate who qualified right behind him. The former Indycar champion destroyed the opposition. This situation forces one to recall Villeneuve's 0.138 gap over Hill last year at this same track. Has Villeneuve matured? Or, was Hill a more competent opponent? One thing for sure, the highly touted Frentzen, who replaced the "aged" World Champion, was left embarrassed.
  2. Barrichello. Experience may play the big descriptor here. Barrichello, with four full seasons behind him, left his rookie teammate there as well.
  3. Hill. Frantically trying to avoid the 107% qualifying time injected by Villeneuve, Hill captured sympathetic emotions that some of us have locked away from the hard world of Formula One. However, his talent showed through when watching the qualifying differentials after he dominated Diniz by over a full second in the area of the grid we hardly pay attention to.
  4. Sospiri. While only two years older than his teammate, Sospiri has much less Formula One seat time than Rosset. Regardless, the extra time spent in Formula 3000 and Benetton testing duties have apparently given the Italian the edge. Could this shed light on the benefits of Formula 3000 experience in preparation of Formula One?

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