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Karun Chandhok has voiced his thoughts on the Belgian Grand Prix potentially exposing a worrying “trend” that has been present with Oscar Piastri and George Russell against their own respective teammates this season.
Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris both locked out the top two spots in FP2 at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, while their teammates, George Russell and Oscar Piastri, could only muster the eighth and sixth fastest times of the session, respectively.
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While that might not seem too big a deal, the data suggests otherwise. Russell was some 1.2s off the pace of his younger teammate’s benchmark, while Piastri was unable to get any closer than just under eight tenths off the pace of Norris.
The championship standings paint a similar picture, too, with Russell and Piastri currently trailing the efforts of their counterparts. This has led F1 pundit Karun Chandhok to raise some questions over the gaps.
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Karun Chandhok sees a trend forming with Oscar Piastri and George Russell vs their F1 teammates
During Sky Sports F1’s coverage of FP2 at the Belgian Grand Prix, the former F1 driver was stunned by the sizable gap that was on display between Piastri and Russell versus their teammates.
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“Are we seeing a trend here, where we have certain tracks in which Piastri and Russell both struggle against their teammates?” he questioned (16:39 17/07), before adding examples: “I think of Miami, where they were both a big chunk away from their teammates.
“I think of Silverstone, where they were again a big chunk away from their teammates. There seems to be a lot of weekends this year where we’re seeing bigger gaps between teammates, and I’m not sure why.”
He then drew attention to the fact that both Russell and Piastri crossed the finish line first in both of the most recent editions of the Belgian Grand Prix, respectively, with the Briton later being stripped of his victory after his car was found to be underweight.
“I’m just trying to understand these gaps,” he added. “Because these are the people who crossed the line first in the last two years, and they’re a considerable margin behind their teammates.”
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Chandhok then offered his own opinion that maybe the more aggressive driving style of Norris and Antonelli are to blame for their superiority, concluding with, “They are both pretty similar in terms of their very smooth driving style.
“If I look at Lando or Antonelli, they are hustlers a bit more. They have the car dancing around just a little bit more with a bit more energy. Antonelli, for sure, has got the upper hand on everybody.”
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