Mercedes still lacks speed: "Gap to Charles and Max was eye-opening"

Mercedes had reason to celebrate after its double podium at the French Grand Prix, but according to Andrew Shovlin, the gap to frontrunners Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc is still too big for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to compete.

Shovin looks back on the 'best race of the year' for Mercedes and is therefore pleased with the progress made, but at the same time he acknowledges that the team is not yet where it wants to be. "We know that we've got a long road ahead," the Mercedes chief said in a team press release. "The weekend hasn't been easy, our qualifying positions weren't far off expectation, but the gaps to Charles and Max were eye opening."

Furthermore, Shovlin saw that the W13 suffered relatively little from tyre degradation, despite the tough track conditions. "Whilst we are lacking a bit of pace, we at least seemed a bit stronger towards the end of the stints," continued the Brit.

With one more race to go before the summer break, Mercedes is looking to pull out all the stops to get another strong result in Budapest. "Hard work has got us to a level where we can fight for a place on the podium but we want to be fighting for the top step. We will be pushing hard to try and finish the first half of the season on a high note," said Shovlin.