Because Red Bull observes with concern that an old rival in the Formula 1 championship reappears

Max Verstappen was the big winner of the French Grand Prix Formula 1. The Dutchman took advantage of Charles Leclerc’s accident to score his seventh win of the season, establish himself as the championship leader and extend his lead over the second-placed Monegasque to 63 points. But the day on the circuit Paolo Ricardo it was also very sweet for Mercedeswhich for the first time this year brought both of its drivers to the podium: Lewis Hamilton finished second in what was his 300th race in the premier class and George Russell, third, ahead of Sergio Pérez.

The German team, which had started 2022 with a lot of problems with its car, showed that the work they are doing on the W13 is giving results. It’s inside Red Bull, his great rival last year, has taken note. “You can see they are getting closer“, he has declared Christian Hornermanager of the Austrian team, in comparing the performance of their cars with those of the silver arrows in the race on Sunday.

“They were already talking a lot about his chances over the weekend and I think they were right in the end. By the end of the race Max had a reasonable lead and was relatively comfortable.and notice that little by little they are closing the distance“, He added.

Horner’s reading is not wrong. The Mercedes have improved a lot since the start of the season. But they still lack to do battle with Red Bull and the ferrariwho despite the disappointment on Sunday, are among the strongest on the grid.

The German team, the great ruler of the Grand Circus for the past eight years, had its worst start to the championship since the beginning of the hybrid era in 2014: just two podiums in the first four rounds.

Hamilton, third in the first round of the year, a Bahrainand did not return to the top 3 until the ninth, June 19, a Canada. Russell was able to get better performance out of his car and finished in the top five in all but race 10 Great Britainwhich he abandoned after damaging his car in the accident that resulted in the incredible overturning of the Alfa Romeo from Chinese Guanyu Zhou. But their consistency did not match the quality of the cars.

His cars, at first, were “unmanageable”, a qualification used several times by both Hamilton and toto wolff, team manager, who even said he didn’t deserve to have a seven-time world champion in his ranks. During the first few dates they suffered more than the rest of the grid with the reliability and the “poised”, that rebound that is generated by the ground effect and hits the cars on straights, at high speed, reducing their performance and making the drivers uncomfortable. But at Mercedes they didn’t give up and kept looking for ways to unleash the potential they saw in the car.

The seven-time world champion and his partner spent many hours in the team’s factories, working with the teams of mechanics to improve each component. And the effort paid off.

Ahead of the French Grand Prix, Horner had already admitted: “The last two races have been decent enough for them and they haven’t had a problem with the porpoise, so it looks like they are slowly returning to the fight. I think who will be one of the possible winners in this date”.

The Red Bull director’s prediction did not come true, but Mercedes took a step forward Le Castellet. Hamilton signed his fourth consecutive top 3 and best result of the year and the team celebrated a double podium for the first time in 2022. Therefore, the joy in the German garage, after seeing the checkered flag, is not was amazing. Prudence began early, though, and rightfully so.

In the Gallic circuit the classification did not leave the expected times. In competition, Lewis started fourth, stealing third place at the start and rose to second place after Leclerc’s accident; but he was far from fighting Verstappen for the win. The Dutchman crossed the line with an advantage of more than ten seconds over the British. and although Russell, who started sixth, got on the last step of the podium from Pérez In the final laps with a great maneuver he had a great help from the Mexican, who fell asleep, braked too much and gave him all the time and space in the world to overtake him.

Hamilton himself recognized after the race that his car is still too slow on the straightssomething that they must correct in order to aspire to regain those victories that were common currency for him until 2021.

“This is one of the biggest deficits. If you lose four, three tenths, on the straight, you can’t help it. We have to improve it for the future,” said the seven-time champion, sixth in the championship standings, 106 points behind Verstappen, who it also celebrated the evolution it is experiencing.

“I don’t think George and I expected to be second and third. It’s an incredible result. Reliability is something we work hard on, so big congratulations to the team, without all the team members we couldn’t have achieved this double podium,” you could see it in the race, we can at least put some pressure on each other, so I hope to get closer and closer ”.

Wolff also acknowledged that the W13 “may not be good enough for the world championship right now”, but stressed the dedication of its drivers -Russel is fifth in the standings, 90 units fewer than the leader- and even has encouraged to “joke” about the performance of the car, ensuring that they will continue to improve it during the summer break, which kicks off after next Sunday’s race in Hungary.

“I heard Toto said they will work on the car over the holidays … It would be illegal,” Horner said with a smile, knowing his Mercedes pair’s comment was a joke. But he stressed once again that the German team’s cars are beginning to “worry” him more and more.

“As a matter of fact, you can see that they are getting closer,” he reiterated, without hesitation.

The “The Menace of the Silver Arrows” It is growing, slowly but surely.