Can Mercedes win in France? 'It surely poses their best chance'

Despite their poorer form, Mercedes has managed seven podium finishes in eleven races. In the last four races a Mercedes driver has finished in third place. Jolyon Palmer believes the team can win in France if they work on their qualifying pace.

Mercedes owe their podium finishes mainly to Red Bull Racing and Ferrari. Max Verstappen's team was plagued by reliability problems at the start of the season, while Ferrari has crashed out often in recent races. Nevertheless, Palmer believes Mercedes are slowly becoming a top team again and will soon be able to compete with Red Bull and Ferrari.

The next race on the calendar is the French Grand Prix. "Mercedes have always gone well there in the past, and it surely poses their best chance of fighting for victory on merit so far this year", Palmer writes in his column for F1.com.

"A problem they need to address is their qualifying form. So far this season, there have been three occasions where it looked like they might have the pace to fight for a win, but in all three, Hamilton has been on recovery drives rather than starting at the front", the Briton continues.

The Mercedes' race pace is better than their qualifying form, according to the former Formula One driver. If the team wants to win in France, they will need to work on their one-lap speed. "That is what has cost them in the last couple of races."