Red Bull boss Christian Horner is wary of the improvement Mercedes have been achieving recently, and expects them to be quick at the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.
Red Bull had a bitter feud with Mercedes last season, but the eight-time Constructors’ Champions failed miserably in reacting to the new for 2022 Formula 1 regulations, as the ground-effect W13 turned out to be a slow and viciously “bouncy” machine.
In Silverstone, Mercedes updated their car heavily and it seems to have improved with Lewis Hamilton taking third in the race, and he followed it up by another one at Spielberg, Austria after that, which sent a sign that the Silver Arrows are on the way to recovery.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner took note of Mercedes’ improvement, and expects them to be strong in the upcoming French Grand Prix.
“We’ll expect them to be quick in [Paul] Ricard,” he said. “They’re showing flashes of being there or thereabouts.
“The last two races have been pretty decent for them and there’s been no sign I think of any porpoising at all, so they seem to be slowly bringing themselves back into the game,” adding: “I think they’ll be a contender.
Mercedes keep storing points
Mercedes have shown their quality as a Championship team, as they have always maximized their chances, and as a result, they are third in the 2022 Constructors’ Championship, 66 points behind Ferrari in second, as George Russell is only five points behind Carlos Sainz, fifth in the Drivers’ Standings.
“They keep consistently scoring points,” Horner pointed out. “I’m not sure how far off they are in the constructors’ or drivers’ [championships] at the moment, but you know, sometimes having more cars in play is a good thing.
“Sometimes it might be a bad thing, but I think for the fans it is great to have six cars, competing for victories, the Briton concluded.
Toto Wolff recently said:”I think we’ve halved the gap over the last few months, we understand better, but we’re still third, fourth – we’re somewhere right in the middle of nowhere.”
But the Austrian also expects his team to fare well at Paul Ricard:”Paul Ricard should be okay. It’s a smooth circuit, a little bit like Silverstone, fast corners, and on paper at least it looks like we can have a good performance there.”