F1 2018: Leclerc v Gasly, Who's had the Better Season?

Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly have been two of the standout drivers of the midfield teams in this year's Formula 1 championship. Both are in their first full year of Grand Prix racing, both are young and have huge potential and the pair are also going to greener pastures for 2019. There's a lot of similarities there, but where do they differ? And who's had the more impressive season so far? I'm going to delve into the statistics and find out!

Best Drives

Leclerc arguably had his best race in Russia last week.

Charles Leclerc's best performances of the season have arguably been in qualifying, where he's dragged his Sauber into Q3 on a number of occasions. The Sauber car is far better than last year's, but it's by no means as fast as the Renault's and Haas' of this world, making it into the top 10 is a huge achievement. Despite a 6th place in Azerbaijan, Leclerc's most impressive display was probably during the previous round in Russia. For the first time this season, Leclerc finished in the "best of the rest" spot, as the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull cars all finished the race unscathed. P7 was as good as the Monegasque could realistically hope for and he fully deserved it. There were no Safety Cars, nor any special strategies on offer, this was a seventh earned on pure pace and Charles was well clear of Kevin Magnussen (P8) when he saw the chequered flag. Leclerc will be a real spectacle when he gets in the Ferrari next season.

Even Toro Rosso couldn't explain Gasly's incredible pace in

Bahrai

An argument could be for Gasly's P6 in Hungary being his best drive, but I believe that came much earlier in the season at Bahrain. Max Verstappen didn't go further than Q2, so the door was open for another driver to occupy sixth on the grid.

To everyone's surprise, that was Gasly, around a power track, the type of circuit where the Honda-powered Toro Rosso should normally struggle. In the race, Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen all dropped out and left the road clear for Gasly to finish P4, a magnificent achievement.

Nobody could explain the Frenchman's pace, not even Toro Rosso or Honda. When you consider that Brendon Hartley was 17th in the same car, this was a special performance and will go down as one of the best of the season.

Versus their teammates

The driver you're always compared to is your teammate

The one true measure of your performance in racing is how you compare to your teammate, afterall, they have the same equipment and personnel as you. It's fair to say Marcus Ericsson and Brendon Hartley aren't generally considered as bein two of the best drivers in the sport, but they're still some of the best in the world, you have to be to make it into F1.

In terms of qualifying, Charles is ahead a staggering 13-3 this season and during the races, Leclerc is 8-3 ahead in Grands Prix where he and Ericsson both finished. Gasly, meanwhile, is also 13-3 ahead of Hartley in qualifiying, and 4-2 ahead in races where they've both finished (STR's reliabilty has been poor this season). Even though Gasly has only scored points in 2 mores race than Hartley, Pierre always scores big, and that reflects in the drivers' standings.

Both drivers are beating their teammates all ends up this season, but I'd just about give Leclerc the edge in this respect, as Ericsson has improved this season and Hartley is still relatively inexperienced in Formula 1.

Versus each other

Leclerc and Gasly have had some good battles on track this season.

A direct comparison between the pair in F1 doesn't produce any conculsive results, Gasly scoring more points (28-21) while Leclerc has out raced his French rival 5-3 in races that they both finished. It's difficult to accuractely say which car out of the Sauber and Toro Rosso has been the best throughout the season, but I believe they've been quite even overall. Toro Rosso probably started out the campaign ahead of Sauber, but the Sauber-Alfa Romeo has steadily improved to the level where points are now expected on a race weekend. Just because he's ahead in the drivers' standings, Pierre edges Charles in this respect.

Overall, it's very tough to say who has had the better 2018 so far, if I had to pick, I'd probably go for Leclerc, as his wheel-to-wheel racing has been so impressive and the gap between him and Ericsson has been a yawning chasm, at times. That's not downplaying Gasly's ahcievements, though, he's had an incredible season, and fully deserves his promotion to Red Bull. One thing's for sure, though, if they build on their performances this season, they'll excel at their respective teams in 2019.