Head-to-head · season 2026

ValtteriBottasCadillac vs OscarPiastriMcLaren

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

VS
#19The Index · 6.86
P19DI championship · 19 pts
0best-of-race
P21official · 0 pts
#8The Index · 8.59
P8DI championship · 74 pts
0best-of-race
P7official · 95 pts

Valtteri Bottas vs Oscar Piastri: who is driving better in 2026?

the verdict, from the numbers

Valtteri Bottas drives for Cadillac, Oscar Piastri for McLaren, so the raw results are not comparable — everything below has car performance taken out of it. Oscar Piastri leads on The Index, 8.59 to 6.86 — P8 against P19, a gap of 1.73 of a grade point. Round by round, Oscar Piastri has out-driven the other in 9 of 13 races where both were graded. Valtteri Bottas's clearest advantage is Qualifying — 8.09 against 7.89. Oscar Piastri takes Attack & Defence back the other way, 8.41 to 6.26. They are effectively inseparable on Tyre Management, Pit Stop Execution. In the DriverIndex Championship — the same season paid on the official points scale, but on driver merit — Oscar Piastri sits P8 on 74 points to Valtteri Bottas's P19 on 19. Officially they stand P7 and P21.

The nine dimensions

season averages, mirrored — the longer bar wins the metric
7.59 B Race Pace 7.92
6.98 C Consistency 8.14
6.26 D Attack & Defence 8.41
6.50 E Tyre Management 6.56
8.09 F Qualifying 7.89
7.06 G Race Start 9.20
7.36 I Cleanliness 8.23

Profile overlay

Race grade, round by round

gaps = not classified