Red Bull offer intriguing response to eye-catching George Russell F1 claim

Red Bull offer intriguing response to eye-catching George Russell F1 claim

Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has attempted to play down George Russell's claim that his team is "the one to beat" following the recent triple-header.

Across the Azerbaijan-Bahrain-Singapore races, Max Verstappen claimed victory in the latter two, took pole position both times and finished second to Russell by just 0.196s in Baku. 

The Dutchman also won the Singapore Sprint to earn a total of 76 points from the 83 on offer across the three grands prix, and has now climbed to fourth in the drivers' standings, and is just 17 points behind Russell in second.

In the constructors', Red Bull's momentum has moved it to within seven points of McLaren in the fight for third, with the team recently delivering a raft of upgrades to the RB22, which has also been deemed to have the strongest engine on the grid. 

Red Bull's upturn in form has coincided with McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari either all not bringing upgrades or struggling with the ones they have as Mekies accepted Russell's claim - but urged caution.

"I think what a fact is is that in these last three races, we had the pace to win two out of the three," Mekies began to tell media, including RacingNews365, when presented with Russell's comments.

"So for the first time this season, in these three races, we had the ultimate pace, and it is fair to say that the three tracks are different enough for one to think that moving to other types of tracks, the car should be competitive.

"This is also what we think: that the car should be competitive, having shown what it has in the last three races.

"Now, it is never a given, and you have seen many examples this year. You had the back-to-back wins for McLaren, and then they suffered a bit more after.

"You had some very dominant periods from Mercedes, and after that, they've been suffering, so it is a fight every race to extract everything we can. 

"If we do so, we think we can fight for the win, and there is another element.

"This is that, as has been well-documented, we have completed our upgrade programme for the year, and so the pecking order could very well rapidly change if some, or many, our competitors bring upgrades."