Mercedes and Bottas believe to have found answers after "knuckling down"

Mercedes appear to be the big favourites ahead of the French Grand Prix, but according to Lawrence Barretto, a comment from Max Verstappen predicted that Red Bull Racing do not consider themselves entirely without a chance either.

After two races on street circuits, Formula 1 is back in France for a race on a 'normal' circuit. This season Mercedes had proved to be the better team in the duel with Red Bull Racing, but after two dramatic races Mercedes have fallen behind. In the Monaco and Baku, only seven points were scored, with a zero points return in Azerbaijan.

"It's been a really tricky period for Mercedes because they've had two races where they haven't been strong so they've had to knuckle down like they always do. There's some finer details to where they're struggling. Valtteri Bottas seems to have found some answers which is encouraging. He says the team have made some mistakes of late and they've rectified that. Lewis was more pragmatic and he knows he's always been strong here so he secretly hopes it will be another strong weekend for him," said Barretto in the Weekend Warm-Up.

"It's realistic of Red Bull to think Mercedes are strong around here and they are probably going to bounce back after two street circuits that they tend to struggle on anyway. When Max was talking in the [media] pen, he said 'actually we look better than we thought we were going to when we came into this weekend'. They feel like they've got a chance this weekend," Barretto concluded.