The start of the 2026 season has seen a fascinating development in the intra-team battle at Mercedes, with Kimi Antonelli heading George Russell at the top of the World Championship after taking two wins to the latter\u2019s one across the opening three rounds.<\/p>\n
While there is a long campaign ahead, it will be intriguing to see how the duel between the two plays out going forward and if it will follow the path of previous rivalries between team mates at the Silver Arrows.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, we\u2019ve been taking a closer look at how the numbers from the Russell<\/a> vs Antonelli<\/a> era stack up in comparison to every other Mercedes<\/a> pairing that came before, analysing their average one-lap pace as well as the overall Qualifying and race day head-to-heads.<\/p>\n For clarity, our data has removed any erroneous Qualifying results \u2013 such as those caused by wet sessions, accidents on second runs, and so on \u2013 while original classifications have also been used rather than final grid slots to avoid penalties affecting the results. Any sessions\/races where both drivers recorded a DNF\/DSQ are also not included.<\/p>\n Needless to say, the 2026 data is just based on the first three rounds of the season \u2013 but the statistics make for interesting reading\u2026<\/p>\n Nico Rosberg vs Michael Schumacher<\/p>\n Following their buyout of the Brawn GP team, Mercedes joined Formula 1 as a constructor in 2010 \u2013 and for their debut season, the squad made headlines by signing seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher<\/a> for his comeback to F1 after a three-year hiatus.<\/p>\n Nico Rosberg<\/a> joined from Williams<\/a> as Schumacher\u2019s team mate, marking the beginning of a line-up that spanned three seasons.<\/p>\n The statistics show that Rosberg generally outpaced Schumacher both in Qualifying and race trim throughout this time, particularly in 2011 where Schumacher\u2019s average Qualifying deficit to Rosberg of 0.326s is the largest gap from any Mercedes duo in the team\u2019s history. Rosberg\u2019s average Qualifying classification of 6.79 was also three places ahead of Schumacher\u2019s.<\/p>\n However, the delta closed in 2012 and Schumacher recorded a slightly better average Qualifying position of 8.71 in comparison to Rosberg\u2019s 9.47. In what would be his last season in F1, Schumacher also memorably set the fastest time in Q3 for the Monaco Grand Prix, only for a five-place grid penalty to drop him down to P6.<\/p>\n When the veteran driver departed from the team, he was replaced by Rosberg\u2019s former karting rival Lewis Hamilton \u2013 kickstarting a memorable period in the Silver Arrows\u2019 history\u2026<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton vs Nico Rosberg<\/p>\n After six seasons racing for McLaren<\/a> \u2013 with whom he scored his maiden World Championship \u2013 Hamilton caught some F1 fans by surprise when he opted for a switch to Mercedes in 2013, the team having claimed only one race victory in the three years prior.<\/p>\n But while they could not match reigning champions Red Bull<\/a> in Hamilton\u2019s first campaign, the squad\u2019s fortunes started to improve during 2013, with both Hamilton and Rosberg taking victories. It was Hamilton who just had the better of his team mate in Qualifying trim.<\/p>\n However, the gap between the pair tightened when the turbo-hybrid era kicked in for 2014, marking the beginnings of a period of dominance for Mercedes. Rosberg was the faster in Qualifying form, but Hamilton would go on to experience title glory.<\/p>\n Hamilton opened up the gap again in 2015 during his next championship-winning campaign \u2013 and while Rosberg sealed the crown after a hard-fought scrap in 2016, the data shows that Hamilton still had the better one-lap pace.<\/p>\n The overall head-to-head numbers from their four years as team mates show that Hamilton just had the edge throughout, with 42 better Qualifying finishes to Rosberg\u2019s 36, while he leads the race day statistics on 44 to 33.<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton vs Valtteri Bottas<\/p>\n With Rosberg making an unexpected exit at the end of his title-winning 2016 campaign, Mercedes were left with a vacancy to fill \u2013 and they ultimately decided to bring Valtteri Bottas<\/a> on board, the Finn having scored a number of podiums during his three years with Williams.<\/p>\n The pairing of Hamilton and Bottas became the Silver Arrows\u2019 longest to date \u2013 spanning five seasons \u2013 and it was during this time that the former embarked on a stunning run of four consecutive World Championships, his feat only brought to an end in 2021 by Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Throughout their spell as team mates, Hamilton consistently led the way in terms of one-lap pace. The margin was at its finest, however, when it came down to 0.120s in 2019, a season that statistically remains Bottas\u2019 best in the sport.<\/p>\n In terms of the head-to-heads from the whole five years, Hamilton leads the Qualifying battle on 69 to 31. The gap is greater for the race day count, the seven-time World Champion experiencing a better Sunday result 74 times in comparison to Bottas\u2019 25.<\/p>\n Bottas \u2013 who achieved 10 victories in his time with Mercedes \u2013 parted ways with the Brackley-based outfit at the close of 2021, while Hamilton would welcome another former Williams racer as his new team mate\u2026<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton vs George Russell<\/p>\n The 2022 season saw Russell make the step up following a three-year stint with Williams, the Briton having long been a member of the Mercedes Junior Programme.<\/p>\n It seemingly did not take long for the new arrival to adjust, with the average delta between Hamilton and Russell standing at just 0.009s in their first season together \u2013 marking the smallest gap between any Mercedes team mates across our data.<\/p>\n Hamilton just had the advantage in this season, as he did again in 2023 \u2013 but the situation changed quite noticeably in 2024, a year in which Russell took the momentum. This was most prominent in Qualifying, where the latter\u2019s average classified position of 5.17 was some way ahead of Hamilton\u2019s 8.50.<\/p>\n Across their three campaigns together, Russell came out on top in the Qualifying head-to-head on 39 to Hamilton\u2019s 29. In race trim, however, the pair drew equal on 34 apiece, during a period that proved tougher for Mercedes amid the introduction of the ground effect era in 2022.<\/p>\n