Albers expects Mercedes to be strong in Turkey: 'Verstappen will struggle'

With only seven races to go this season, the battle for the championship remains exciting. There are a number of circuits coming up that suit the Red Bull Racing team better, but Mercedes will also get a few more chances for a good result.

In the podcast of The Telegraph, Christijan Albers talks about the difference between Red Bull and Mercedes. "Hamilton has the best power unit, but he certainly doesn't have the best car. I think Red Bull has the best car this year. We all know that the hardest hit has come to Mercedes and not Red Bull. That does make it nice for us as fans to go and watch. Ross Brawn has done his job well though. He looked at where can I punish the others to make the others come closer. Well, he did. We have a super nice fight."

"The penalty of Mercedes is of course much bigger than Red Bull's. That's the reason why it's such a close fight now as well. If you start looking at the mechanical grip the Red Bull is just much better than the Mercedes. Let's just be happy that Lewis Hamilton is a megastar, that he has a hundred wins and I don't know how many championships to come. That means if Max Verstappen beats him later, he's way up there again anyway."

Will the title fight be decided in Abu Dhabi?

Albers finds it difficult to say whether the title fight will only be decided in Abu Dhabi. He believes it will depend on the types of circuits we are still going to see this season. "It depends a bit on the tendency of the circuits. I find it very difficult to say because some circuits suit the Red Bull very well."

"At some circuits, the Mercedes would be much stronger, so we gotta wait and see. I think in Turkey the Mercedes will be very strong again, similar to the Red Bull, so that's another weekend where Lewis should technically score the maximum points. Those are tracks that suit the Mercedes. That's where Max will struggle anyway." On the other hand, there are also strong circuits coming up for Red Bull, such as Mexico, for example.