3 Drivers Who Will Turn the Tables on Their Team-Mates in 2016

Whether he finds himself sat in a Manor or a Mercedes, a milk float or a masterpiece, the first goal of any Formula One driver remains the same—he must beat his team-mate.

Only half of the drivers on any given grid can achieve their goal; the rest have to come up with excuses. Maybe they were unlucky, or the car didn't suit them, or they had to stay up all night looking after their newborn baby while their child-free team-mate could sleep as he pleased.

The only certainty is that the driver will always have a reason for being beaten—and the reason will never be that his team-mate is a better driver. Racers don't think that way, and when the new season gets under way, they'll all start afresh, feeling they have a chance to come out on top.

Here, we look at the three drivers who were beaten by their team-mates in 2015—for a variety of reasons—but have an excellent chance of turning the tables in 2016.

Daniel Ricciardo

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Daniel Ricciardo will have felt a bit deflated when he got to the end of the season and found himself eighth in the final standings—one place and three points behind team-mate Daniil Kvyat.

The Toro Rosso graduate who embarrassed Sebastian Vettel in 2014 had himself been embarrassed by a Toro Rosso graduate—or so it seemed.

But the championship table doesn't always tell an accurate story of how a season unfolded, and this is very much what happened with the Red Bull drivers in 2015.

Ricciardo was, over the course of the season, the better driver; had all things been equal, he would have finished ahead. However, his bad luck tended to happen at the most inopportune of moments.

An electrical problem took him out of the Belgian Grand Prix, where he would have fought Romain Grosjean for the podium; Kvyat was fourth. Ricciardo would have finished fourth behind Sergio Perez at Sochi had his suspension not failed late in the race; again, Kvyat benefited.

And in Hungary, a 50-50 incident between Ricciardo and Nico Rosberg saw Kvyat promoted to second. Ricciardo, having been by far the quicker driver that weekend, was third.

In Kvyat's defence, he drove exceptionally well after a difficult start and no one could say he did not justify Red Bull's faith. And make no mistake, he outperformed Ricciardo on a number of occasions—perhaps more frequently than anyone might have expected.

It'll be another tight battle between the Red Bull duo in 2016, and Kvyat, with a little more experience, will probably be closer in terms of overall consistency.

But as long as reliability and luck don't play too great a part, Ricciardo is the more complete driver at this stage of his career, and he should come out on top.

Fernando Alonso

Clive Rose/Getty Images

Fernando Alonso has a long and impressive history when it comes to intra-team battles. Between 2003 (when he first scored a point) and 2014, he beat his team-mate in the drivers' standings in 11 out of 12 seasons.

The one battle he didn't win, that with Lewis Hamilton in 2007, ended all square—both scored 109 points.

His undefeated (in points terms—Hamilton won 2007 by virtue of having more second places) record came to an end in 2015, with Jenson Button coming out on top with 16 points to Alonso's 11. However, the Spaniard won't be losing any sleep over that; given the woeful state of the MP4-30, the fight between the McLaren drivers last year was nothing more than a lottery.

The drivers had some input, of course—but it was primarily a case of having a reliable car when the opportunity for points arose. This happened more frequently for Button (four times) than for Alonso (twice), so the Briton ended up ahead in the standings.

But in terms of performance, they looked relatively equal. If anything, Alonso was marginally the better driver—recognised by his placing of sixth in the Autosport team principals' vote for the driver of the year (Button was outside the Top 10) and fifth in Ben Anderson's driver ratings for the same publication (Button was 10th).

Alonso achieved the team's best qualifying result of the year, 11th at the United States Grand Prix, and finished 11th—one place outside the points—on four occasions. And he did this driving, by his own admission, nowhere near his potential.

He told press at Interlagos before the Brazilian Grand Prix:

"

I did some good laps here and there. But apart from these two moments I don't think that I had the best season, so definitely I need to improve for next year.

When you are at the front and you have more motivation that helps...but I'm on standby, let's say, in economy mode, to have full energy next year.

"

As on the previous slide, we shouldn't take anything away from the driver who won in 2015. Button, who must have had a few motivational issues of his own, drove extremely well and some observers, including Keith Collantine of F1 Fanatic, thought he was better than Alonso.

But as good as Button is, there is only one truly exceptional driver in the McLaren team and his car has a No. 14 sticker on it.

With a (hopefully) more competitive MP4-31 to drive, Alonso will be back to his best and showing us all why he is widely regarded as one of the best—if not the best—drivers on the grid.

Nico Hulkenberg

YURI CORTEZ/Getty Images

Nico Hulkenberg had a mixed year in 2015. His wider racing career and reputation received a massive boost in mid-June, when—alongside co-drivers Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy—he won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.

But though he was very much the man of the hour back then, Hulkenberg will have been disappointed with how his F1 season went. He was beaten by a team-mate in the championship standings for the first time since his rookie year—and it wasn't a close-run thing.

Sergio Perez's blistering form in the second half of the season saw him score 78 points to Hulkenberg's 58. The German was once the youngster set for great things and the go-to guy at Force India; now, it seems Perez has taken his place.

But it may not be that simple.

Whether it's pure coincidence or something else, Hulkenberg's driving appears to be affected by how he feels his career is progressing. His best run of form in 2015 came immediately after his attention- and plaudit-grabbing victory at Le Mans—he was excellent at the Austrian, British and Hungarian grands prix.

After Hungary, despite retiring from a strong position in the race, Hulkenberg was motoring along nicely with an 8-2 lead over Perez in the qualifying battle and had 23 points to his team-mate's 15.

Then came the summer, and Ferrari opted to retain Kimi Raikkonen for 2016. Having missed out again on a seat to which he has long been linked, it became apparent Hulkenberg was almost certainly going to remain a midfield driver in 2016.

In the six races that followed—from Belgium to the United States—he was outqualified four times, crashed out three times and picked up just 14 points. In the same period, Perez scored 49 points.

A similar turnaround occurred in 2014 immediately after Ferrari confirmed they were keeping Raikkonen. Again, is it a coincidence or something else?

Either way, Hulkenberg has not suddenly become a poor driver, and his 2015 season was not as bad as it seems. He still outqualified Perez 11 times, finished ahead of the Mexican more often than not and, per F1 Fanatic's data, spent far more laps ahead of his team-mate than he spent behind him.

With a number of drivers approaching "retirement age," there could well be a number of quality seats up for grabs at the end of 2016. If Hulkenberg's driving is indeed affected by whether or not he sees opportunities for advancement, this will give him a boost and his driving will improve accordingly.

And if his dips and troughs in form were no more than coincidences, he's still a top racing driver—but then, so is Perez.

Evenly matched as the two drivers are, the intra-team battle at Force India is likely to be one of the closest in the field in 2016. Even if Hulkenberg doesn't come out on top, the points gap will be much smaller than it was last year.