Written by Maham Mir, Edited by Marit Everett
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris battle for the lead of the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix | Credit: Formula One
For every sport across the globe, competition is a key part of the game and there’s no doubt that Formula One follows the same pattern. But unlike the rest of the sports around the world, F1 demonstrates its uniqueness by having an individual driver’s title as well as a team constructor’s title up for grabs.
Throughout F1 history, teammate rivalries have sometimes been the deciding factor between the driver who claims the championship and the driver forced to accept second place.
Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost with former team principal of McLaren, Ron Dennis | Credit: Formula One
The battle between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost from 1988 to 1989 has gone down as one of the fiercest rivalries the sport has ever known. Combined, the pair won seven World Championship titles during their time in the sport. In the two seasons they were teammates at McLaren, they each took home a title but these victories were not without controversy.
No strangers to battling each other on track, the tension between the two drivers had begun long before they were ever teammates. The rivalry began in 1984 when Alain Prost won the Monaco Grand Prix, which saw Ayrton Senna take his first ever F1 podium.
These tensions reached a boiling point once the pair became teammates with; some of their fiercest moves against each other takingtook place at various iterations of the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.
Their rivalry, which entertained fans for years in what is often considered the ‘golden era’ of motorsports, saw a full circle moment for the pair in 1993. Sharing their final podium together in Australia, as they had shared Senna’s first podium in Monaco, the former teammates seemed to have put past grievances behind them. On that occasion, Senna had been the fastest car on track yet he pulled the Frenchman onto the top step of the podium to celebrate with him.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton on the podium | Credit: Formula One
In recent years, few rivalries have received more attention than that of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Once childhood friends who dreamed of being in F1 together, the pair were teammates at Mercedes between 2013 to 2016. In that time, Hamilton won two World Championship titles in 2014 and 2015 but the height of their rivalry as teammates came in 2016.
The pair, giving Mercedes a season of dominance like it had never seen before by winning all but one race, took the championship battle to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
After a season-long battle, including the infamous moment at the Spanish Grand Prix where both cars collided, Rosberg claimed his first and only World Championship title and became the third driver in F1 history to retire as reigning champion. Rosberg remains, to date, the only teammate to beat Lewis Hamilton to the driver’s championship title in equal machinery
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battle for position in the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix | Credit: Formula One
In a sport that relies upon speed, it should be no surprise that rivalries between teammates can be built within the blink of an eye, especially when teams build cars capable of being dominant. 2025 so far has shown the battle between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri reach new heights but only time will tell if this rivalry will reach the heights of those past.
However, despite rivalries between teammates, F1’s system of winning championship titles has forced teams to make their drivers work together. Whether it be by giving each other slipstreams during qualifying for optimal starting positions on the grid or building up gaps to avoid overcut or undercuts by their closest team rivals, F1 has seen even the harshest of rivals working together for the good of the team.
In many ways, the story of rivalries has almost always dominated the headlines of F1 and with the chance of a championship on the line, there can be no doubt that teammates will continue to battle it out on-track.