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Villeneuve fears Red Bull not used to title fight

Red Bull are currently embroiled in their closest title fight in years with Mercedes, as Max Verstappen leads Sir Lewis Hamilton at the top of the Drivers' Championship. However, former F1 world champion Jacques VIlleneuve thinks the Milton Keynes-based team are out of practice

With Max Verstappen standing on top of the drivers' table after his race win in Monaco, former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve feels that Red Bull is lacking recent title fight experience. Sir Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will be looking to bounce back at the next race in Baku, with the hopes of a competitive F1 championship in 2021 remaining well and truly alive five races into the season as Red Bull have pushed Mercedes as far as they have been for some time. "Max is used to running over the car to get the results, Lewis is not," Villeneuve told Motorsport Magazin. "It will depend on the the season goes, if it just comes down to managing the lead or if he has to fight like he did with Nico. He's no longer used to it," he said. "On the other hand, Red Bull are no longer used to fighting for titles. You therefore have already had mistakes in strategy decisions. It will be a long season and that will all balance out." Villeneuve added that Red Bull were also suffering from a lack of support from Verstappen from teammate Sergio Perez, who has not managed to support the Dutchman as reliably as Valtteri Bottas has Hamilton. "They are not used to [fighting for the title] anymore. But they have incredible people there, that will be fine. Now the bigger problem is that Perez isn't in the fight," Villeneuve said. "He was quick but somehow things went wrong. Like in Imola, he qualified up front, Mercedes had two cars and they can used Bottas in the strategy. Having two cars makes it a lot easier to get the strategy right."

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