Mercedes dominant pace tough to beat anywhere – Verstappen

Max Verstappen says Mercedes’ dominant performance during the opening two rounds of the 2020 F1 World Championship means it’s unlikely to have a ‘bogey’ venue that will allow Red Bull to claim an advantage.

This weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring represents the highest downforce venue of the revised 2020 season and is perceived as an opportunity for the traditional handling-focused Red Bull to take the fight to Mercedes in a straight fight.

However, while the twisty venue hasn’t always been Mercedes strongest circuit, Verstappen believes the W11’s searing form in Austria suggests it isn’t going to have any weak circuits this year.

“Every weekend is an opportunity but we always have to be realistic. When you are that dominant, like Mercedes, I think they will be quick on every track.

“I always give it my very best but you have to be realistic, it will be hard to beat them, let’s see how close we’re going to be, maybe the weather is always going to play a part, it can create chaos, we’ll find out, but on pure pace I think it will be very hard to beat them.

Reflecting on where he believes the Mercedes gains over the Red Bull, Verstappen admits there is still a variance in straight line speed, while stability is a visible issue for the unpredictable RB16 an issue.

However, the Dutchman feels the Red Bull drives well in low-speed corners, which could allow him to at least get on terms with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

“Clearly they gained a lot on straights and there there’s not a lot of corners to get back, so it’s a handicap at that track. Low speed we are very competitive so that’s a positive.

“Just a few high speed corners where they are just very strong and also when you look at their onboards the car is very stable and predictable, mine as I said already the second week was more predictable, but it seems that they have another step on top of that and they can really throw the car in and the car just looks hooked.

“We’ll try to work towards something like that. Also it has a lot of impact on tyre life when you have a very stable car, it’s not only over one lap but only on a race to look after the tyres.”