Sergio Pérez’s 10–3 record now tops the 2026 teammate race head-to-head after the Italian Grand Prix, jumping him from third to first. The shake-up also reshuffled the next group: Antonelli and Verstappen climbed, while Lawson and Alonso slid despite identical 9–4 records on paper.
By Julian Reyes
Sergio Pérez is the new leader of the 2026 Teammate head-to-head (race) ranking after Monza, turning a two-place climb into a change at the very top. He leaves the Italian Grand Prix with a 10–3 record for Cadillac F1 Team, moving from third to first and replacing previous leader Liam Lawson.
What makes this swing especially telling is that it’s not a story of a headline race result powering the ranking. Pérez was classified 18th and lapped at Monza, starting from a qualifying position of 20, yet the metric is purely about finishing ahead of the other Cadillac driver in races where exactly two cars were entered. That single, binary outcome is enough to tilt a tight table after 13 races completed.
The top of the ranking is compact. Andrea Kimi Antonelli is now second with 9–4 for Mercedes, and Max Verstappen is third on the same 9–4 for Red Bull. Both were among the biggest movers of the round, each gaining two positions: Antonelli from fourth to second, Verstappen from fifth to third.
Those matching 9–4 records underline how much this ranking can hinge on marginal weekend-to-weekend swings in intra-team results. After round 13, Pérez’s advantage is only one head-to-head win over the nearest challengers, and the reshuffle behind him shows how quickly a driver can move when several rivals cluster on similar totals.
Lawson’s drop is the most direct illustration of the ranking’s knife-edge nature. He came into Monza as the leader and leaves it fourth, a three-place fall from first to fourth, despite his record also reading 9–4. In other words, the loss of the lead is less about a collapse in the raw win-loss line and more about rivals around him converting enough head-to-heads to leapfrog.
It also adds an intriguing layer to Red Bull’s internal picture within this metric: Verstappen is now third at 9–4 while Lawson is fourth at 9–4, separated only by the ranking’s tie-break structure after wins and win rate. With both on identical records but moving in opposite directions this week, Red Bull suddenly has two drivers occupying adjacent positions near the sharp end of the table.
Fernando Alonso endured the biggest slide among the key movers, dropping four spots from second to sixth for Aston Martin even though his season record in this measure remains 9–4. Monza was a brutal reminder of how little buffer exists when several drivers share similar totals: a single weekend can turn a podium-level standing into a spot outside the top five without the headline record line changing much.
Alonso’s Italian Grand Prix ended as a retirement after 23 laps, classified 21st, having qualified 21st. The ranking itself doesn’t care about the cause—only whether one teammate finished ahead in the official classification—so a result like this can be disproportionately damaging when the table is compressed.
As race-day context, the Italian Grand Prix also had three retirements in total. In a metric that reduces a weekend to one intra-team win or loss, any non-finish increases the risk of a clean swing for the other side of the garage—and, in a season where multiple drivers sit on 9–4, those swings have immediate ranking consequences.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 2 | 6 | -4 | 9–4 |
| Liam Lawson | Red Bull | 1 | 4 | -3 | 9–4 |
| Sergio Pérez | Cadillac F1 Team | 3 | 1 | +2 | 10–3 |
After 13 races, Pérez’s 10–3 puts him only one head-to-head win clear of Antonelli and Verstappen on 9–4, so the lead is real but far from secure. With Lawson and Alonso also showing 9–4 yet dropping multiple places, the message from Monza is that the front of this ranking is being decided by small, immediate swings rather than long-term separation.