Former Formula One driver Mark Webber has questioned Red Bull over whether they’ve given Max Verstappen the best chance of winning this season’s Driver’s Championship.
The Dutchman leads the way in the race for the title, but holds a slender lead over defending champion Lewis Hamilton with six races still to go in the F1 calendar.
Verstappen sits six points ahead of the Brit, and there are questions over whether he’ll be able to hold onto his lead following his performance at the Turkish Grand Prix.
Hamilton beat his rival to pole position in Istanbul before taking a 10-place grid penalty, before Valtteri Bottas claimed victory as the Mercedes drivers put in impressive performances, with Hamilton eventually taking fifth.
Webber told the F1 Nation podcast: “I think that my little concerns off the back of [the race in Turkey] are: are Red Bull giving Max the car for closing this championship out?
“Because I think that I would have lost a lot of money for Valtteri to have the measure of Max in those conditions. I thought Verstappen would run rings around him all day long, but he couldn’t react to the speed of Valtteri.
“It was interesting. I think in terms of performance [in both the] dry and wet, Red Bull know they need to react to the Mercedes’ pace now, with these new engines that Mercedes have put in the back of the car, or some aero, or whatever’s going on.
“Max is really hanging in there. OK, he had a shunt in Monza, but I think [in] Russia he drove brilliantly, obviously, and that’s all he could get out of the car in Turkey as well.”
The Mercedes’ performances in Istanbul led Red Bull boss Christian Horner to question the “phenomenal” gains made by the team.
Horner has gone on to raise questions with the FIA, but Webber believes Mercedes now hold a distinct advantage heading into the business end of the season.
“I think right now you would have to think that the Merc has the advantage.
"I just think that the tracks we have just been to…don’t forget that Valtteri stormed to pole in Monza but had the penalty so he could have done what he did in Turkey as well and disappeared at that race without the penalty.
"So I think they are just starting to get a bit more of a spring in their step at this crucial point in the championship. I just think that the tracks we have just been to…don’t forget that Valtteri stormed to pole in Monza but had the penalty so he could have done what he did in Turkey as well and disappeared at that race without the penalty.
"So I think they are just starting to get a bit more of a spring in their step at this crucial point in the championship."