The best way to judge a driver in Formula 1 is to compare them to their teammate.
They’re the only person in the paddock with the same car and with the 2025 F1 grid featuring so many changes compared to last year, many people’s expectations and opinions of drivers are going to change over the coming months.
Only McLaren and Aston Martin stuck with their pairings from 2024, and while Fernando Alonso has a distinct advantage over Lance Stroll, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri needed team orders at times last year with a constructors’ championship on the line.
Every team principal will be desperate for their two drivers to get along, particularly with the grid likely to be extremely close after years of convergence under the same ruleset.
However, each driver will want to prove themselves and will know the best way to do so is to beat their teammate, and that could end in disaster if they’re not careful.
Former F1 driver Christian Danner was speaking on Motorsport-Magazin’s YouTube channel ahead of the season starting.
He had a worrying prediction about Haas for 2025 and their new driver pairing Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman.
Ocon has previously clashed with his Formula 1 teammates and Bearman showed during his three outings last season with Haas and Ferrari that he’s no pushover either.
Danner is therefore worried that the £807m-valued team will be dealing with a ‘brutal clash’ at some point this year.
Christian Danner expects ‘brutal clash’ between Haas drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman
Danner was asked which driver pairing is at the greatest risk of blowing up in 2025 and answered: “You have to look at the whole 2025 Formula 1 season, team by team.
“I think there are two teams with explosive potential, as far as the driver pairing goes.
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“Let’s start with the obvious ones with McLaren. Piastri, I don’t think that he will voluntarily submit to Norris. He will say to him, now it’s my turn.
“But, the team that I’m 100% sure where there will be a brutal clash is Bearman and Ocon.
“And then Bearman will come into the world of Formula and find out that not everyone is nice and Ocon will do what he has always done which is to beat his opponents.”
Haas are expected to spend most of this year focusing on their 2026 car when the sport’s regulations change drastically.
It means they’ll want Ocon and Bearman to stay out of trouble so that Haas aren’t spending unnecessary parts of their budget on fixing this year’s car, with Williams suffering from a similar problem last season due to their drivers frequently ending up in the barriers.
Christian Danner predicts whether Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will clash at Ferrari
Danner was asked whether he thinks Hamilton and Leclerc will clash at Ferrari and continued: “No, Hamilton is not the same Hamilton who a clash only once in his life.
“Yes, it was an unpleasant, dirty I would say teammate problem with Alonso.
“But that was the fault of the time a bit down to Ron Dennis. There was a lot that didn’t work out.
READ MORE: All to know about Haas F1 Team from team principal to Ferrari and Toyota ties
“But Lewis is a completely different type to Ocon for example, or also with Norris and Piastri, that is different.
“Of course, there is also Lawson who let’s say in the scale of, I don’t give a f—, the other driver is clearly number one, so he doesn’t give a damn about anything.
“But I don’t think he’s fast enough to keep up with Verstappen. If they were on the same level, then it would be just as bad.”
It’s going to be fascinating to see how each intra-team battle plays out, and while Ocon has the advantage of years of experience in Formula 1, Bearman has shown already that he’s exceptionally quick, otherwise, he wouldn’t have the continued support of Ferrari.
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