Horner expects Mercedes renaissance to continue in France

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By their own high standards, Mercedes has suffered a dreadful first half to the season after hitting problems with this year's new car in the wake of the sport's latest aerodynamic rule changes.

The W13 has been particularly badly affected by 'porpoising', but seems to have finally got on top of the problems with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell both finishing in the top four in Austria.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has noted the recent upswing in the Mercedes performance and expects this to continue in the next race in France at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Read also: Mercedes still missing 'two or three tenths' – Wolff

"We'll expect them to be quick in Ricard," Horner said. "They're showing flashes of being there or thereabouts.

"The last two races have been pretty decent for them," he continued. "There's been no sign I think of any porpoising at all, so they seem to be slowly bringing themselves back into the game."

Despite the team lacking in competitiveness compared to Red Bull and Ferrari, its consistency and reliability has helped it minimise the damage as far as possible.

George Russell has been in the top five in every race he's finishes so far (the exception being his opening lap crash at Silverstone) while Hamilton has been on the podium in both of the last two races.

But Red Bull is 122 points ahead of Mercedes in the constructors standings making them almost certain champions even at this early stage of the season, bringing to an end Mercedes record run of eight consecutive titles.

Mercedes will instead most likely focus on catching Ferrari for second, who are 66 points in front. It's a similar position in the drivers championship, with Russell and Hamilton fifth and sixth behind the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers.

"I think they'll be a contender," Horner said when asked whether Mercedes would be a factor in the team battle over the course of the remaining 11 races still to go this year. "They keep consistently scoring points.

"I'm not sure how far off they are in the constructors' or drivers' at the moment, but you know sometimes having more cars in play is a good thing. Sometimes it might be a bad thing!

"But I think for the fans it is great to have six cars competing for victories," he added.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.