Allison makes striking Red Bull claim after recent F1 downturn

Mercedes' James Allison has claimed that Red Bull's recent downturn in Formula 1 could be down to an upgrade actually being "a downgrade."

After winning four of the first five races of the season, Red Bull has only won one of the last three, at Imola, with McLaren and Ferrari scooping honours in Miami and Monaco, respectively.

The team struggled badly throughout practice at Imola, before Max Verstappen dragged the RB20 to pole and the win, but trouble riding the kerbs and bumps in Monaco meant the world champion was firmly out of the fight as McLaren and Ferrari battled for the win. 

Verstappen believes that the team has taken steps to address and understand the problems affecting the car, with it being the only leading team not to bring a sizeable upgrade package - although a good sized one was brought to Imola - where the problems began for the team. 

Reflecting on this, Mercedes technical director Allison expects Red Bull to be back in the hunt in Canada, but felt there was hope around the impact, or lack thereof, of the upgrade.

"My guess is that as there is a decent range of cornering speeds, they'll be useful again," Allison told media including RacingNews365.

"But it does look like that their upgrade was a downgrade, so fingers crossed. 

"It makes life hard as if you are not trusting your tools, you have to back-track and you lose loads of time.

"Time is your biggest friend and losing it is your greatest enemy. 

"Everyone always loves other people's misery in this game."

Mercedes' Canada prospects

As for Mercedes itself, the team is greatly encouraged by the steps it has taken over the past couple of race weekends to get back near fighting the top three teams, with Allison keen to kick on.

"Where we are now, appears to be somewhat better than where we were two races ago," he said.

"And hopefully, we're somewhat better in a couple of races from now as we've gone from being really embarrassingly crap and not good enough at the beginning of the year to being near the fight. 

"A little bit more will get us right in the melee."