“Red Bull don’t have the advantage anymore”: Honda’s managing director thinks Mercedes’ secrets have helped Lewis Hamilton massively in the last few races

Honda’s Managing Director Masashi Yamamoto feels that Mercedes’ recent upgrades have made Red Bull go below their rivals.

The last few weeks have been very turbulent for the Red Bull team. After winning two consecutive races in USA and Mexico, Max Verstappen had a comfortable lead over rival Lewis Hamilton in the standings. The following two race weeks were equally poor for the Milton-Keynes based outfit.

Hamilton’s Mercedes showed unreal pace in both Brazil and Qatar and he won both races quite convincingly. Since, then the momentum has shifted completely to the Silver Arrows’ side of the paddock. Most fans and pundits think Hamilton has the upper hand going into the last 2 races of the season.

Red Bull believes Mercedes no longer enjoys an “abnormal” #F1 top-speed advantage after rear wing checks at Qatar ⬇️https://t.co/6GAQJ8beLz

— Autosport (@autosport) November 26, 2021

Honda’s managing director Yamamoto agrees with the statement. “We are still ahead on points, but I don’t think we have an advantage. The situation is critical and the tension is increasing.” he said.

Honda have been supplying power units to the Red Bull team since 2019. They are in their last year in F1 and the Japanese company want to leave the sport on a high by winning both the Driver’s and Constructor’s titles.

Also read: Kimi Räikkönen believes that the rivalry between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton is being blown out of proportion by the media

Red Bull have their feet firmly on the ground

Realistically, Verstappen can win the title in the next race in Saudi Arabia itself. However, unless Hamilton has a disastrous race, the chances of that happening are slim.

Despite all the talks of Mercedes having the upper hand, Verstappen is still ahead by 8 points going into the Jeddah race weekend. He has not let this go to his head, even when he was leading Lewis by 19 points a few weeks ago.

In an earlier interview with DAZN, the 24 year old said that he ‘does not know’ who will stand tall in Abu Dhabi in two weeks time.

👀 Max Verstappen will be crowned world champion in Saudi Arabia if… #F1 pic.twitter.com/YjvggDMMpZ

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 22, 2021

“I don’t know and that’s a good thing. “Because I don’t think about these things. I’ll improvise when the time comes, if it comes.” said Verstappen.

“And if not, same thing. If I don’t think about the positive then I don’t think about the negative either.” “I stay in the middle, which I think is what works best for me.” the Dutchman concluded.

Also read: Lewis Hamilton is not worried about the tensions between Mercedes and Red Bull