Head-to-head · season 2026

CharlesLeclercFerrari vs CarlosSainzWilliams

SAI leads the grade duel 7–6 — across the 13 rounds both were rated in, the car stripped out of the equation.

VS
#3The Index · 9.37
P2DI championship · 130 pts
2best-of-race
P5official · 127 pts
#9The Index · 8.51
P9DI championship · 74 pts
0best-of-race
P15official · 6 pts

Charles Leclerc vs Carlos Sainz: who is driving better in 2026?

the verdict, from the numbers

Charles Leclerc drives for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz for Williams, so the raw results are not comparable — everything below has car performance taken out of it. Charles Leclerc leads on The Index, 9.37 to 8.51 — P3 against P9, a gap of 0.86 of a grade point. Round by round, Carlos Sainz has out-driven the other in 7 of 13 races where both were graded. Charles Leclerc's clearest advantage is Race Pace — 9.63 against 8.59. Carlos Sainz takes Pit Stop Execution back the other way, 7.86 to 6.61. They are effectively inseparable on Tyre Management. In the DriverIndex Championship — the same season paid on the official points scale, but on driver merit — Charles Leclerc sits P2 on 130 points to Carlos Sainz's P9 on 74. Officially they stand P5 and P15.

The nine dimensions

season averages, mirrored — the longer bar wins the metric
9.63 B Race Pace 8.59
8.63 C Consistency 7.66
7.52 D Attack & Defence 6.87
8.09 E Tyre Management 8.04
8.18 F Qualifying 9.32
9.68 G Race Start 9.04
8.44 I Cleanliness 7.58

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Race grade, round by round

gaps = not classified