Mercedes Technical Director James Allison has claimed it harbours suspicions Red Bull’s recent Formula 1 updates were a “downgrade” which could “mess them up”.
Red Bull’s dominance under the current ground effect rules has come under increased threat over recent times as Ferrari and McLaren have both made huge inroads.
McLaren triumphed in Miami through Lando Norris and pressured Max Verstappen to the end at Imola, while Charles Leclerc delivered Ferrari a prized win in Monaco.
Verstappen attributed Red Bull’s issues in Monte Carlo to the team’s long-standing weakness in riding bumps and kerbs being exposed since the pack has converged.
However, Allison has suggested that the upgrades Red Bull brought to its revised RB20 car at Imola might not have delivered the expected gains from the wind tunnel.
“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,” Allison told Autosport.
“So, fingers crossed that would really mess them up.
“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.”
Asked whether seeing Red Bull being caught had granted encouragement to Mercedes, Allison answered: “Everyone always loves other people’s misery in this game.”
Mercedes has adopted an aggressive development process over recent races as it bids to recover from an underwhelming start to the term with its new car concept.
The German marque’s boss Toto Wolff addressed in Monaco that it has now discovered the correct avenue to unlock performance from the current generation cars.
But with the squad having introduced a realigned front suspension to Canada this weekend, Allison has stressed that continuous progress remains his main priority.
“I have to confess, I’m not really thinking of it in big-picture terms like that,” he assessed.
“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.
“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.”
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