Mercedes: "Verstappen will be a formidable opponent"

Max Verstappen managed to win the race in Austria in 2018 and 2019 and as the season starts there on the 5th of July, the Dutchman is of course a favourite. Mercedes, on the other hand, has suffered from technical issues in recent years, which prevented them from controlling the victory at Spielberg. How things will go this year is still a few weeks away, but Mercedes sees Verstappen as the driver they have to beat.

No doubt

"There is no doubt that Max Verstappen will be a formidable opponent for us", says James Allison, technical director at Mercedes, in the last F1 podcast. "Our race last year in Austria was hampered by our own errors with regard to cooling, which caused us to deviate from the normal rhythm."

"A year before, we were hampered by the unreliability and clumsy mistakes of the safety car." Something Mercedes now wants to leave behind by showing off without obstacles. "I think we're all looking forward to going to Austria. To show a little more of what we can do there compared to the mediocre performances we've had in the last two seasons."

Mercedes expects and hopes to be better and of course they will now have solved the technical problems they had. Whether that is enough to beat Max Verstappen in his Red Bull will have to be seen. They clearly see the Dutchman as the main competitor.

"Ferrari showed a strong form during the winter test, but we imagine that Max will be very strong in Austria, because Red Bull there is always extra motivated and has a good history on the track", concludes Allison.