Formula 1: How Much Impact on Your Title Chances Does Your Teammate Have?

How important to a team's outcome is the driver pairing, on and off the track? Does it make a big difference to the outcome at the end of the year or do they behave like opponents on and off the track?

Many of the partnerships this year look as solid as marriage, while others look like a couple on the rocks.

For example, what is it with the new guy at Ferrari? Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a public rant to knock the guy because whether we like it or not, he’s world class. 

Fernando Alonso Diaz has molded himself into one of the best racing talents the sport has ever seen and he's proved it—twice.

But the thing that I have grown to like about racing drivers is often their character, their charisma and largely their genuine gratitude for the seat they’re in.

24 places are available on the front line of F1 and I promise you thousands upon thousands of people would make ultimate sacrifices just to sit in a Formula One car, let alone drive one.

So, why does the angry Spanish man behave the way he does and what effect does that have on the team on the whole?

Even from the early stages in his Ferrari career, reports stated that during the Australian GP Albert Park, he could be heard demanding that Felipe let him pass because he genuinely thought that if he could pass him, he would have taken the top step.

Of course, it was far too early in the season to be making any kind of team orders as we were barely out of the starting blocks. But for some reason, the great(ish) Fernando thought he should have been given the jump on his teammate.

Back in his Renault days, he didn’t need a radio during the race, as his screams insisting Fisi move aside could be heard from the other side of the track! The same could be said for his stint at Mclaren, where insiders claim that his radio transmissions might as well have translated as “boo boo boo, get Lewis out of my way, even though he’s three cars in front.”

And let's not go back over the 'gestures to Petrov' incident at the end of the last race in Abu Dhabi.

I just hope that now he has a season under his belt in the seat that he had been longing for, and to be fair, is worthy of, that he doesn’t alienate his team or his teammate like he seemed to do at Mclaren.

Felipe Massa has proved that he’s just as likely a title contender as anyone else on the track, albeit not a great 2010 season, which I think can be largely blamed on his horrific accident in 2009. Yet, he certainly doesn’t want to end up an enemy of the two-time title taker.

We all know that Alonso is capable of the odd pit box hold up, amongst other things. 

If he could just calm down and concentrate on his day job, I have absolutely no doubt that it will be a key ingredient to making his life a lot easier, and if he could try and be a good lad with it, all the better for everyone.

Take a Look at the new Mclaren pairing: Ok, Lewis had the odd shocker this season, but you know that his talent and determination will win him a number of titles in the future. I think the sight of a silver and red one–two will become a regular picture in 2011, and certainly would have been more this season if not for the odd exhaust bung and out of control Red Bull. 

Already, Jensen is making friends at the team and his experience is paying dividends. If Lewis can relax and find that form we all know is fantastically unstoppable, then I think that’ll be a couple of contracts that we’ll see re-signed time and time again.

Watching them interviewed together, or amusingly interviewing each other, gives the impression they’ve been teammates forever. This will surely have a positive effect on each other mentally, and on the team itself going forward. 

But then look at the Red Bull boys. There have been many ups and downs this season that have put a lot of pressure on the relationships in Milton Keynes camp, but they ended up with both driver and constructor's titles.

Since the season closed in Abu Dhabi, reliable reports have stated that the teammates have firmly buried any hatchet that once was and are already looking forward to defending their titles in 2011. 

I think it's fair to say from Webber's point of view that he was put under a lot of pressure from a team who didn't seem to be backing him, despite leading the championship. Coupled with the stress of the hotly-contested drivers title, you can understand why sparks flew.

All we need now for a perfect F1 landscape is to adios the likes of double diffusers and F-ducts, give Fernando a warm glass of "shut the hell up" and we could well be on for another epic season!