Add a seat at the table, that there is an extra rival. The Barcelona weekend recorded a approach of the Mercedes to the performances of Ferrari and Red Bull both in Qualifying and in the Race, even if the W13 at least on a traditional and complete circuit like that of Montmelò proved to have solved at least the problems related to porpoising, but to still have ground to recovering at the top of the class as pointed out by Mattia Binotto himself, perhaps with excessive severity in quantifying the Mercedes’ delay in the race pace at seven tenths per lap.
Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott stressed that the W13 is still a car capable of fighting for the world title and Binotto himself confirmed the hypotheses of those who expect a Mercedes fighting for victory in Monaco given that it is a circuit where load and traction count, characteristics that are not lacking in the car entrusted to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. The developments brought by Ferrari to Barcelona worked and the F1-75 both in Qualifying and in the Race seemed unbeatable up to the technical problem that stopped Leclerc. Red Bull tried to respond with a few kilos less, but Verstappen found himself without DRS in the second run of Q3 and in the Race.
With still 16 races to go, it is impossible to rule out a priori that Mercedes cannot get back into the fight for the title, after all Verstappen after Melbourne was -46 points behind Leclerc and after three races he has an advantage of 6. The balances can vary from weekend to weekend depending on the developments and the budget cap is already a battleground between the teams as is the ‘petrol case’ definitely. erupted in Barcelona after the signs with the Aston Martins at the start from the pit lane in Miami.
While Verstappen’s Red Bull was stopped in the pits to heat up the petrol, Mattia Binotto and Toto Wolff exchanged a few words on the starting grid. “We talked about the budget cap and the weather”, sketched Toto Wolff to the microphones of Sky, while the Ferrari team principal before the start regarding the problems faced by the Red Bulla had stated that there was the possibility that they could have implications in the race. According to what is reported by today’s edition of The Corriere dello Sport judging from what was observed in the paddock, there could even be extremes for a Binotto-Wolff axis against Christian Horner, their ‘equal rank’ in Red Bull who evidently in the power games and rudeness among the big names in the last few years as a ‘quick-change’ depending on what was convenient could have upset both Binotto and Wolff.
It should not be forgotten in addition to the budget cap and the gasoline case that in June on the Liberty Media paper and the FIA must transform the draft of the regulation for the new cycle of power unit which will start in 2026, the year in which Red Bull is ready to embrace Porsche as a new engine supplier, also demanding important regulatory advantages in terms of money to invest in engine development and time to allocate to dynamic dyno tests.
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