Pressure piled on Red Bull and Mercedes after stark declaration from rivals

Red Bull and Mercedes have received a warning from a rival F1 boss as the competition at the front of the grid heats up.

After two consecutive Red Bull one-twos at the start of the season, F1 fans were resigned to another season of dominance from the reigning champions.

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However, McLaren emerged to challenge Red Bull at the Miami Grand Prix, and since then have established themselves as arguably the team to beat.

The Woking-based outfit have achieved two wins this season, with Lando Norris claiming a maiden victory in Miami and Oscar Piastri acquiring his first win in Hungary.

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Mercedes have also become a threat, despite a woeful start to the season, and have added three race wins to their tally - the most recent of which was at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Whilst McLaren were less competitive at Spa, their team principal Andrea Stella believes they have made progress on low-downforce tracks.

“I think we have gone 50 per cent of the journey,” he said, according to MotorsportWeek.

“I’m more confident that at high downforce we have the car in a good place, like the car does what we want in terms especially of aerodynamic behaviour.

“But we haven’t yet done a lot of development at lower drag level.

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“So to me it’s not a surprise that here in Belgium we were not as competitive as Hungary, and it’s not a surprise that for the same or a little bit better top speed.

“Still we were losing quite a bit in the second sector. It means that if we want to gain speed, we’ll give up quite a lot of grip.

“But I hope that in the future, possibly next year in Belgium, we have completed this quest to have the most efficient car even when top speed is important.”

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