George Russell believes Red Bull is "holding back" and is "almost embarrassed" to unleash its full might for fear of the FIA intervening to rein in its car's performance.
In Australia last weekend, Red Bull upheld its 100 per cent success rate for 2023, with Max Verstappen adding his second win of the season.
Since Bahrain, the Milton Keynes-based outfit's RB19 has been in a league of its own, outpacing its rivals in both qualifying and race trim, thanks to its Honda-powered car's perfect blend of aero efficiency and top speed.
However, for all its supremacy and dominance, Russell is convinced the RB19 isn't performing at its full potential. Speaking on the BBC's Chequered Flag podcast, the Mercedes driver explained why.
©RedBull
"For sure they’re holding back," Russell claimed. "I think they are almost embarrassed to show their full potential because the faster they seem, the more that the sport is going to try and hold them back somehow.
"I think realistically they probably have seven-tenths advantage over the rest of the field.
"I don’t know what the pace difference looks like at the moment but Max has got no reason to be pushing it nor has Red Bull.
"They’ve done a really great job to be fair to them. We can’t take that away, and we clearly have to up our game."
When Russell's comment was put to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, the Briton remined everyone of the Brackley squad's once hegemonic position on the grid.
"OK, that’s very generous of him," said Horner. "His team of all people would know too well about those kind of advantages."
But Horner was asked point black if Red Bull is indeed purposefully restraining itself.
"There’s always an element of managing that goes on in any race," he said, perhaps partially admitting to Russell's theory.
"Because it was a one-stop race and a very early one-stop race, of course there was an element of tyre management which was going on, which was what they were doing.
"Checo wasn’t hanging about, he wasn’t cruising around, holding back seven-tenths per lap, because he didn’t want to show it. The grid was certainly a little bit closer here at this venue [in Australia]."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
