While race results are the ultimate measure in terms of performance for a team, a useful indicator is the qualifying head-to-head between drivers.

Moreso than the win:loss ratio is the relative gap between drivers as it offers an opportunity to imperially identify standout performances and performers.

Looking at Haas for instance, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg are on average just 0.02s from one another in qualifying trim.

However, a closer look shows Magnussen pulled out a lap in qualifying in Australia, while Hulkenberg returned serve in Japan last time out; the pair split by closer to half a second at those two events.

Regardless, it leaves the pair the most closely matched on the grid, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, and Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for Mercedes.

Ferrari’s season includes one fewer data points than its rivals since Sainz was absent from the Saudi Arabian GP from Saturday, replaced by Oliver Bearman.

Scratching that weekend entirely as a comparison leaves Sainz and Leclerc split by just 0.085s despite the Spaniard being faster in two of the three sessions thus far.

Leclerc was exactly 0.1s faster in the opening round, marginally above average, while Sainz was 0.25s clear of his team-mate in Albert Park, some margin above the average gap.

At the other end of the spectrum is Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso, who has dominated team-mate Lance Stroll in the opening four rounds.

The pair are split by an average of 0.560s on a qualifying lap, the biggest difference between teammates on the grid – and that allows for the fact Stroll was 0.5s quicker in qualifying in Australia.

However, Alonso was the better part of seven-tenths faster in qualifying in Jeddah and a similar margin in Bahrain. He was a staggering 1.4s quicker in Japan, marking Stroll out as the worst-performing driver on a Saturday so far this season.

Next worst is Logan Sargeant, who didn’t take part in Australia since Williams had given his car to team-mate Alex Albon following his Friday crash.

As such, we can scratch that weekend from their head-to-head comparisons which leaves a data set of three, with Albon the quicker of the two in all of them.

The Thai driver is more than half a second faster than his American team-mate on a single lap, a point which sheds more light on why team boss James Vowles made the call to haul Sargeant out of his car in favour of Albon.

After Stroll and Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo is the next worst-performing driver, though a pinch of salt is needed.

The gap to Yuki Tsunoda, who has bested him in all four sessions, is somewhat inflated by his deleted time from Albert Park.

On average, Tsunoda is 0.496s faster than Ricciardo, a gap which drops to 0.341s had the Australian kept all four wheels on the racetrack on his faster lap in Melbourne.

Valtteri Bottas enjoys a similar single lap advantage over his Sauber team-mate Zhou Guanyu, the Hinwil pairing split by an average of 0.466s.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris carve out one of the more consistent pairings.

They’re split by 0.138s, which sets them out as F1’s fourth most closely matched lineup, behind Haas, Ferrari, and Mercedes.

Of the four rounds, the Japanese stands out for McLaren with Norris almost 0.3s clear of this team-mate, who conceded he’d not delivered the performance he expects from himself.

There was a slightly smaller gap in Australia while the pair were broadly even in the opening two rounds, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Average qualifying difference between drivers