Four-way fight before Austin: Mercedes says its early advantage is gone
Six wins to start the season, now 'a real fight': Mercedes expects Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull to challenge in Austin. Recent qualifying gaps are down to hundredths of a second.
Photo: mrlaugh (Flickr) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · FORMULA 1 · youtube.com
Ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Mercedes is warning of a tight four-way fight at the front. According to GrandPrix.com, communications director Bradley Lord said the team has a "real fight on our hands" after the recent triple-header, while engineering director Simone Resta said Mercedes can no longer assume it will have the fastest car at every circuit. Depending on layout, weather and execution, all four leading teams have a realistic chance. Mercedes won the first six races of the season.
The numbers back that up: on average across qualifying from Hungary to Singapore, Mercedes was 0.162 seconds off pole, Ferrari 0.277, McLaren 0.283 and Red Bull 0.339. Excluding Baku, Ferrari (0.184), Mercedes (0.189) and McLaren (0.191) are practically level, with Red Bull on 0.233 seconds.
According to Formula1.com, McLaren is bringing further upgrades to Austin, while Mercedes is still working to understand the update introduced in Malaysia. Max Verstappen, last year's Austin winner, won the most recent races in Malaysia and Singapore. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli (340 points) could be crowned on Sunday – to do so he must win while team-mate George Russell (238) finishes no higher than ninth.