© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin says Red Bull are the favourites in 2021, but if Mercedes performs at its best, they can still win the championship.
Mercedes has not been able to win the last three races, and now sits behind Red Bull in both the drivers’ and the constructors’ championships. However, Andrew Shovlin believes the team can bounce back.
“The way we look at it is this team at its best can beat Red Bull,” the Briton said.
“I think [in France] we saw that the opportunities we missed were the difference. We know it’s going to be difficult.
“We think that they [Red Bull] are the favourites. Clearly they’ve got a very good package, but if we perform at our best we can beat them and we can win the championship.”
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Furthermore, Shovlin believes Mercedes could have won the French Grand Prix.
“It is annoying, because I think we could have won the race. I think we could have had two cars on the podium.
“We’re in a championship where we can’t really afford to let these opportunities go by. We’ve got a good race car, and we showed that.
“I think we’re lacking a bit in qualifying, but in terms of the race, on a normal circuit, we are able to put them under pressure. But we know that to do that, to win races, we’ve got to be next to perfect.
“There’s plenty of things that we can go away and reflect on and say that we didn’t do a good enough job with. We’re pretty good at being brutal with ourselves and analyzing it.
“So we’re going to do that for a couple of days and hopefully come back in Austria stronger,” concluded Mercedes’ chief engineer.
