Head-to-head · season 2026

LiamLawsonRed Bull Racing vs CarlosSainzWilliams

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

VS
#14The Index · 7.37
P16DI championship · 27 pts
0best-of-race
P9official · 48 pts
#9The Index · 8.51
P9DI championship · 74 pts
0best-of-race
P15official · 6 pts

Liam Lawson vs Carlos Sainz: who is driving better in 2026?

the verdict, from the numbers

Liam Lawson drives for Red Bull Racing, Carlos Sainz for Williams, so the raw results are not comparable — everything below has car performance taken out of it. Carlos Sainz leads on The Index, 8.51 to 7.37 — P9 against P14, a gap of 1.14 of a grade point. Round by round, Carlos Sainz has out-driven the other in 8 of 13 races where both were graded. Liam Lawson's clearest advantage is Consistency — 9.15 against 7.66. Carlos Sainz takes Race Pace back the other way, 8.59 to 6.81. They are effectively inseparable on Expected Position, Race Start. In the DriverIndex Championship — the same season paid on the official points scale, but on driver merit — Carlos Sainz sits P9 on 74 points to Liam Lawson's P16 on 27. Officially they stand P15 and P9.

The nine dimensions

season averages, mirrored — the longer bar wins the metric
6.81 B Race Pace 8.59
9.15 C Consistency 7.66
8.30 D Attack & Defence 6.87
8.64 E Tyre Management 8.04
7.98 F Qualifying 9.32
9.13 G Race Start 9.04
9.03 I Cleanliness 7.58

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Race grade, round by round

gaps = not classified