Head-to-head · season 2026

LewisHamiltonFerrari vs CarlosSainzWilliams

HAM leads the grade duel 8–5 — across the 13 rounds both were rated in, the car stripped out of the equation.

VS
#5The Index · 8.92
P5DI championship · 95 pts
2best-of-race
P2official · 171 pts
#9The Index · 8.51
P9DI championship · 74 pts
0best-of-race
P15official · 6 pts

Lewis Hamilton vs Carlos Sainz: who is driving better in 2026?

the verdict, from the numbers

Lewis Hamilton drives for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz for Williams, so the raw results are not comparable — everything below has car performance taken out of it. Lewis Hamilton leads on The Index, 8.92 to 8.51 — P5 against P9, a gap of 0.41 of a grade point. Round by round, Lewis Hamilton has out-driven the other in 8 of 13 races where both were graded. Lewis Hamilton's clearest advantage is Attack & Defence — 7.82 against 6.87. Carlos Sainz takes Qualifying back the other way, 9.32 to 7.86. They are effectively inseparable on Pit Stop Execution. In the DriverIndex Championship — the same season paid on the official points scale, but on driver merit — Lewis Hamilton sits P5 on 95 points to Carlos Sainz's P9 on 74. Officially they stand P2 and P15.

The nine dimensions

season averages, mirrored — the longer bar wins the metric
9.26 B Race Pace 8.59
8.15 C Consistency 7.66
7.82 D Attack & Defence 6.87
6.89 E Tyre Management 8.04
7.86 F Qualifying 9.32
8.04 G Race Start 9.04
8.45 I Cleanliness 7.58

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Race grade, round by round

gaps = not classified