Max Verstappen extended his lead in the championship by taking his seventh victory of the season last Sunday at the 2022 Formula 1 French Grand Prix, taking advantage of Charles Leclerc’s accident when he was leading the race after fending off the Dutch driver’s attacks. .
But behind, Mercedes stood out noticeably with both drivers taking the podium for the first time so far this season, with Lewis Hamilton finishing second and George Russell third after stealing Sergio Perez’s wallet in the closing laps.
The seven-time world champion climbed to second behind Verstappen after the resumption of the session following Leclerc ‘s accident, but was unable to fight off the Dutchman’s Red Bull due to his speed deficit on the straight and ended up crossing the finish line 10 seconds from #1.
Although Red Bull boss Horner was not “particularly” surprised by the top speed of the Mercedes , stating that they “didn’t stand out in any significant way”, he acknowledged that the German team was getting very close to the top positions.
“They were already talking highly of his chances before we got to the weekend,” Horner said after the race at the Paul Ricard circuit.
“I think towards the end of the race, Max was quite comfortable. But yeah, you can see they’re working on it, they’re getting closer.”
Horner joked: “I’ve heard Toto [Wolff] said they’re going to work over the summer break to upgrade the car, which would obviously be illegal…”
“But it’s a fact, you can see that they are getting closer,” the Red Bull man admitted.
According to forecasts, Mercedes was expected to have a fairly smooth race at Paul Ricard thanks to its smooth tarmac and a layout that seemed to suit the Mercedes W13.
However, Hamilton fell eight tenths off Leclerc ‘s pole time, while Russell could only manage sixth on the starting grid.
Mercedes director Toto Wolff explained after the race that the car is still “lacking some single-lap performance and we’re lacking performance in the first few laps of every stint”.
Verstappen ‘s win saw his lead in the drivers’ championship grow to 63 points, but he admitted the gap was larger than it should be given Ferrari ‘s performance, which has been comparable to Red Bull ‘s.
Referring to whether the fastest car this weekend was the F1-75 or the RB18, Horner said it was “impossible to say really”.
“Obviously Carlos Sainz looked fast, but he was on a different strategy, on the medium tyre, when the others were on the hard tyre. But yeah, for sure they had a very fast car today,” Horner said in closing.
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