“Surely at Red Bull they are holding back…”. this said George Russell about Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez before the Dutchman took another victory at the Albert Park circuit. He pointed out that of Mercedes that the superiority “could even reach seven tenths”.
Explaining his words, he said that “they didn’t need to squeeze”: “Max has no reason to push. They’ve done a great job, we can’t take that away from them, and clearly the rest of us have to improve.”
Those words did not please Christian Hornerwho has remembered what the superiority of Mercedes was like not so long ago: “His team would know very well about these types of advantages, there is always management in any career…”.
“It was like that because it was a one stop raceand a very early stoppage, we had to manage the tires, as, in fact, we did,” says the head of the energy drink team.
And he details how they prepared for the Australian GP: “We had oriented the car towards the race rather than qualifying. You can see that perhaps the cars that warmed up their tires more aggressively may have suffered a little more in the race.”
Verstappen is the outstanding leader of the world championship with 15 points ahead of his teammate. The big difference is in the constructors’ championship. Red Bull leads with 123 points and Aston Martin is second with 65 points. Mercedes, third with 56 points.
Red Bull has been superior in these first three races. That is a reality. But in baku things could change. It will be the stage where all the teams wear their best and where it will begin to be known if someone can ‘cough’ Verstappen and Pérez.
