We had gotten rather used to seeing Max Verstappen take win after win in these last two years, on a Red Bull that seemed uncatchable for the rest of the grid.
This season, however, they are not having the dominant season everyone expected down in Milton Keynes.
A problem on his right rear brake had Verstappen retire as soon as lap 5 in Australia, a lucky safety car – and an impressive drive – saw Lando Norris finish ahead of him in Miami.
The thing the RB20 seems to be struggling with the most has been dealing with bumps and kerbs and definitely won’t appreciate the high-speed chicanes of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit this weekend.
In Emilia Romagna Red Bull brought the biggest upgrade package so far, a new floor and a front wing in an attempt to increase front-end grip.
An update that Mercedes Technical Director James Allison believes to be a step back rather than the leap forward they hoped for.
“I guess as soon as there’s a decent range of cornering speeds, they’ll be useful again, but it does look as if their upgrade was a downgrade. So, fingers crossed that would really mess them up,” he said on Friday.
“That makes life hard, because the moment you stop trusting your tools, you have to backtrack and you lose loads of time. Time is your biggest friend, losing it is your worst enemy.”
In Imola Verstappen barely managed to keep Lando Norris’ McLaren behind, while in Monaco he came P6 and his teammate Sergio Perez – fresh of renewal – didn’t even make it to Q2.
Struggles Allison is certainly not too sad to hear about.
Everyone always loves other people’s misery in this game,” he remarked.
Meanwhile Mercedes is only 4th behind McLaren in the constructor’s and is debuting an upgrade package this weekend in Canada, enhancing the new front-wing Russell tried last time out in Monte Carlo.
Hopes are to turn the W15 into a much better version of the incredibly disappointed one Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been dealing with so far this season.
“I have to confess, I’m not really thinking of it in big-picture terms like that. I’m just thinking where we are now appears to be somewhat better than we were two races ago. Hopefully, we will be somewhat better in a couple of races from now,” commented Allison.
“We’ve gone from being really embarrassingly crap, not good enough, at the beginning of the year, to be near the fight. A little bit more will get us right in the melee.”
