One rising F1 team ‘could spring surprise’ on Red Bull at Spanish Grand Prix

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen leads the way at the 2023 Spanish GP

Although Damon Hill believes Red Bull will be the team to beat in Spain, the 1996 champion is “not totally confident” in his prediction as Mercedes could surprise.

After Red Bull’s early-season run with four wins in five races, Max Verstappen has managed just two in the last four and was pushed all the way to the line at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Could Mercedes pull off a surprise in Spain?

Splitting the tally with McLaren and Ferrari, the past four race victories read McLaren-Verstappen-Ferrari-Verstappen. Could another team continue the trend in Spain?

Hill believes it is a possibility, and he’s tipped Mercedes with their much-improved W15 and its new front wing to be the surprise package.

“I’m going say that this is going to be a return of Red Bull’s dominance, window of opportunity. I think that Max and even Checo could be up there. I think their car is going to be better suited,” he told the F1 Nation podcast.

“But it’s going to be close. And I don’t think it’s going to be a total walkover.

“I think tactically, I think in the race there could be an opportunity for a number of teams – the usual suspects, McLaren, Ferrari, and also Mercedes.”

“I’m not totally as confident of that prediction [Verstappen winning] as I might have been in the past,” he continued. “Let’s leave it at that.

“There’s a chance… I don’t know what Ferrari are going to do.

“I mean it could even be that Mercedes actually have really broken through a little glass ceiling that they had there, so it could be that they could spring a surprise.”

Key information ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix

Five Spanish GP questions: Carlos Sainz’s future, Ferrari upgrades, Mercedes on the up?

F1 schedule: When is the next F1 race and where is it being held?

What Mercedes have to say ahead of the Spanish Grand Pix

But while Hill believes Mercedes could surprise, technical director James Allison has downplayed that as he doesn’t believe the track nor the hot weather forecast for the weekend will play to the W15’s strengths.

“The changes we have made are making this car a better car,” Allison said. “And that will be true at every circuit we go to.

“The characteristics of Montreal make it look a little quicker than we have a natural right to command at the coming races.

“In Barcelona, I think it more likely that we will be competitive, but not right at the front. Because the next tracks are a little bit of a sterner test of a car. Hot asphalt, wider cornering speeds.

“However, I also know what we have got coming. I also know what we are planning to further improve the car.

“Our challenge is just to keep those upgrades arriving at a pace that the others cannot keep up with.

“In doing that, just bullying our car to the front by virtue of the effort made by everybody here over the coming weeks and months to get the car so that it can have its Montreal weekend or better at any track that we face in the future.”

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