Why Ferrari and Mercedes are Red Bull's best friends

The enemies of my enemies are my friends. If we follow this adage, Red Bull should get along well with Ferrari et Mercedes at the end of the season. The Austrian team, leading the Constructors' World Championship in F1, sees his lead melt like snow in the sun while McLaren is coming back at a sustained pace. Twelve points now separate the two teams.

It's almost the same for the Drivers' ranking. Max Verstappen, a solid leader, has not won a race for six Grands Prix and sees a Lando Norris in full swing. The Briton, however, has a problem on the way to his herculean comeback against the reigning triple world champions: Ferrari and Mercedes.

Although Red Bull clearly no longer has the most competitive car today and has been caught or even overtaken in the leading pack, they have taken sufficient advantage of their lead at the start of the season to offer Max Verstappen a comfortable cushion in the Drivers' standings.

Especially since the other three teams are fighting on the track and sharing the victories, preventing one or the other from clearly dominating in turn and therefore from catching up with the Dutchman who is still firmly at the top of the championship, as evidenced by his 62-point lead despite the bad run without success.

Of the last six Grands Prix not won by Verstappen, Norris has won only one, as has Charles Leclerc with Ferrari, where Mercedes drivers have won three (one for George Russell, two for Lewis Hamilton).

Lando Norris has three podiums in the last six races, in addition to his victory. The only one to do the same is not far behind him. It isOscar piastriThe Australian also won a Grand Prix right under his teammate's nose...

McLaren and Piastri, Norris's worst enemies

For the moment, it cannot be said that Piastri has played the role of number two driver, as can Sergio Perez with Max Verstappen at Red Bull. And he is right. He has not received any team instructions to that effect. McLaren lets its two drivers fight on the track as long as they do not cross the limit. So the Australian is free to overtake his teammate when he can, and he does not hold back.

If the English team had given instructions to its drivers by establishing a well-defined hierarchical order, Lando Norris could have had one more victory (in Hungary) and would have been preferred to his teammate to be Charles Leclerc's runner-up on the podium at Monza. Which suits Red Bull, who sees this battle between teammates at Woking with a positive eye.

Some may think that this is counterproductive in the race for the Drivers' title. But McLaren refuses to do so, perhaps to avoid upsetting its young Australian driver, who, like Norris, is catalogued as a potential world champion in the future. But until when? After the Monza episode and all that it has generated, it would not be surprising to see Zak Brown and his ilk decide once and for all. Perhaps in Baku for the next Grand Prix (13-15 September), a hierarchy will be clearly determined this time...

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