Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has reiterated that he is wary of the threat from Mercedes after their strong performances of late.
The race pace of the W13 has looked much improved in recent rounds since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after which Sir Lewis Hamilton looked in a lot of discomfort due to his back.
Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have taken out the last four race wins, but the Silver Arrows have been on the podium in all four of them – George Russell ending third in Baku before Hamilton managed the same result in Canada, Silverstone and Austria.
Although the German side have needed to take advantage of some misfortune for Red Bull and Ferrari to pick up their seven rostrum appearances in 2022, their general race pace, particularly in Britain, is now picking up, and the smooth track surface at Paul Ricard next weekend will be conducive to the team running their car lower, and putting on another strong showing.
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“We expect them to be very quick there,” predicted Horner.
“They’ve been very strong at the last two races and there hasn’t been any sign of porpoising at all, they seem to be slowly getting back into the game.”
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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes that his side are still a little way off being able to compete with Red Bull and Ferrari on merit, but they are starting to reach those levels of performance.
“We would really like to be there in the fight that Ferrari and Red Bull are having at the front.”
“We would really like to be there in the fight that Ferrari and Red Bull are having at the front,”
Wolff added that the Brackley-based team have “got ‘porpoising’ under control now,” allowing them to run a more ideal car setup, and helping their straight-line speed.