Former F1 driver Christian Danner reflects on Mercedes Red Bull battle

The battle for the world championship this season is one of the most exciting in years. Not only does this mean that Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are fighting it out on track, but their teams are also battling it out on the field.

Fierce title battle between Mercedes and Red Bull

Hamilton and Verstappen went into the summer break with just eight points difference in favour of the Brit. In the constructors' standings Mercedes have a twelve point lead over Red Bull. With twelve races to go this season, it can still go either way. The crash of Verstappen in Silverstone put the title battle under high pressure.

"They have now crashed for the first time and not like we have seen in the past between Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen or at the time between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Those incidents could be resolved internally," concludes former Formula One driver Christian Danner in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin.com. The two teams are now directly opposite each other. "Of course this has had an effect on the teams and this will definitely be felt on the track in the second half of the season. This runs through to the mechanics."

Pressure between teams

According to Danner, both teams are now under enormous tension. "The psychological pressure that this creates is already great, of course. Especially when the teams are picking on each other, which happens more from Red Bull towards Mercedes than the other way around." Mercedes and Red Bull regularly fall out against each other in the media, for which Red Bul is most to blame, according to Danner.

In any case, the second half of the season promises to be a beautiful and above all exciting one, Danner also thinks. "The teams are working 24 hours a day to get the best out of the material. On the track that means it's going to be really exciting." The second half of the season gets underway on August 29 with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.