Red Bull hoping to pile pressure onto Mercedes

Red Bull is hopeful that the pressures that Mercedes find themselves under in the championship race will lead to more chances in the second half of the season. Mercedes struggled over the three weeks during F1's first ever tripleheader.

Speaking to Racer, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated his belief that his team would come on much stronger after the summer break and that the pressure that the defending champions find themselves under could only be a benefit to their rivals.

"I think historically post summer break we have always been very strong to the end of the championship, so if we can get to the summer break still in contention, I’m reasonably confident we can have a good final third to the championship at tracks that will play more to our strengths.

"Then it starts to get really interesting because pressure builds, whether it be with the drivers, strategists, the pit crew, the setup, engineers — it just builds throughout an entire organisation. Then you see the strength and depth and character of a team.

"I think that if you look at Mercedes’ history their only main competition has been internal between their own drivers, so they have never been in a position — or the management of the team has never been in a position — where they have had to go head to head through an entire season. And, of course, the closer you get towards the end of the year the more the pressure builds."

Whilst Mercedes have arguably had the fastest car in 2018, their performance under pressure has been less than impressive, costing themselves two race victories with poor decisions and panic setting in, something Horner knows very well by now.

"It’s a new experience for them. There are obviously very capable people there, but our role if we get close enough will be to put pressure on, because we’ve seen that when you do put pressure on Mercedes mistakes do happen."