Head-to-head · season 2026

KimiAntonelliMercedes vs CarlosSainzWilliams

ANT leads the grade duel 9–4 — across the 13 rounds both were rated in, the car stripped out of the equation.

VS
#2The Index · 9.50
P3DI championship · 118 pts
2best-of-race
P1official · 241 pts
#9The Index · 8.51
P9DI championship · 74 pts
0best-of-race
P15official · 6 pts

Kimi Antonelli vs Carlos Sainz: who is driving better in 2026?

the verdict, from the numbers

Kimi Antonelli drives for Mercedes, Carlos Sainz for Williams, so the raw results are not comparable — everything below has car performance taken out of it. Kimi Antonelli leads on The Index, 9.50 to 8.51 — P2 against P9, a gap of 0.99 of a grade point. Round by round, Kimi Antonelli has out-driven the other in 9 of 13 races where both were graded. Kimi Antonelli's clearest advantage is Attack & Defence — 8.81 against 6.87. Carlos Sainz takes Race Start back the other way, 9.04 to 7.37. In the DriverIndex Championship — the same season paid on the official points scale, but on driver merit — Kimi Antonelli sits P3 on 118 points to Carlos Sainz's P9 on 74. Officially they stand P1 and P15.

The nine dimensions

season averages, mirrored — the longer bar wins the metric
9.60 B Race Pace 8.59
9.30 C Consistency 7.66
8.81 D Attack & Defence 6.87
9.14 E Tyre Management 8.04
8.75 F Qualifying 9.32
7.37 G Race Start 9.04
7.84 I Cleanliness 7.58

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Race grade, round by round

gaps = not classified