Originally Posted by
Nitrodaze
The general perspective was Portimao and Barcelona would give us a clear indication of how dominant the Redbull car was relative to Mercedes. If the Redbull was able to beat Mercedes on their favorite tracks, then we can all run off to the bookies and place our bets on Redbull winning the 2021 Constructors and driver championships. Hamilton overtook both Bottas and Verstappen in both races to claim both victories. The initial response was to say the Redbull is not as fast as we are led to believe. The W12 may actually be the fastest car on the grid.
Hamilton seems to think otherwise. He thinks the Redbulls are making mistakes which Mercedes is capitalizing on. One thing is clear, Redbull is scratching their heads trying to work out how Mercedes are beating them even when the wins seem available and attainable. And Verstappen has done the hard work of claiming track position and on his way to a famous win. You could argue that Redbull is struggling under the pressure of fighting Mercedes and are making mistakes. Going for a one-stop strategy at Barcelona could easily be said to be a strategic mistake with hindsight. The truth of the matter is, Mercedes has recovered the aero package to be on level pecking with the fierce Redbull. Redbull does not have it all their way and must work harder for their wins.
With Mercedes already this close already, with four races into the season, Redbull now has a mountainous battle to win one of the championships on the table. That said, Redbull is close enough to cause an upset by the end of the season, but they have to get their act together and realize they are fighting the best team in F1 history. It is still very much 50:50 at this stage of the season, but Mercedes may begin to pull away on the development front as they properly understand better how to put the awesome power of their new engine onto the track. When they do that, it would be game over for Redbull.