Two races ago, Max Verstappen’s winning margin in Canada was a season-low 9.5-seconds over Aston’s Fernando Alonso (bar the safety car-ended Australian race), while Lewis Hamilton had chased the Red Bull home in Spain.
Last time out in Austria, Ferrari was the closest challenger at the front to F1’s current dominant team – albeit set to finish north of 24s behind with Charles Leclerc before Verstappen’s late third pitstop.
Speaking after the race at the Red Bull Ring, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff claimed “we don't know” why there have been so many recent swings in race pace between the three teams in question, adding that “the only stable factor is actually Max because even within Red Bull, Sergio [Perez] has these swings and it is not easy to understand”.
Speaking at Silverstone ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Alonso was similarly mystified, but theorised that differing track types – Barcelona is a high-speed, smooth venue compared to the near-street track Montreal layout and Austria being in between the two with its fast turns and hard kerbs – could offer an explanation.
“We were slower than Montreal, no doubt,” Alonso said of Aston’s Austria pace, where it finished fifth and ninth for the Spaniard and team-mate Lance Stroll.
“Also Spain was a little bit off pace. So yeah, it is something that we would love to understand. And everyone would love to understand.
“I think in Spain, Mercedes was clearly the second fastest team and they were challenging Red Bull in a way, and they got much closer to Red Bull.
“In Canada it was Aston Martin that was the second fastest and we were challenging Max in a way. And then in Austria it was Ferrari.
Source: Autosport