Red Bull were favorites to win at the opening race weekend in Bahrain, but it was Mercedes’s night in the desert as they took the win. The Silver Arrows can’t lose focus as their Austrian rivals showed better pace all weekend long. Former F1 driver, Ralf Schumacher thinks the Milton-Keynes-based squad will be ahead of the competition in Imola, as the track favors them.

The Austrian squad showed impressive pace in the opening weekend, courtesy of Verstappen. The Dutchman got pole position, having beaten Hamilton and Bottas in the process. In the closing laps of the race, Hamilton had an intense battle with Verstappen, but it was the Knight who came out on top.

Imola is the second race on the 2021 calendar. The Milton-Keynes squad will hope to redeem themselves in the upcoming weekend. Red Bull will aim for the first win of the season.

Schumacher thinks Imola is Red Bull’s strongest track

In an interview with Sky Sports. Schumacher said, “Imola should actually be a Red Bull track. Verstappen was really fast there last year, he only had a technical problem, otherwise, you would have seen a Red Bull upfront.”

He added,  “Well, I see Red Bull slightly ahead again. But Mercedes has not slept [as far as the development of the car is concerned]. Bottas was also extremely strong in the race. That will definitely be exciting between the two [ Red Bull and Mercedes].” (Translated from German via Google)

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Mercedes’s Toto Wolff thinks their Austrian rivals will be hard to beat

The team principal of the Silver Arrows was glad that his team won the opening round in Bahrain and now sits on top of the contributor’s standings. He is concerned about his rival’s pace and stated they would be hard to beat.

In the post-race interview, Wolff said, “Bahrain was always not the strongest race for Red Bull, and also they haven’t been particularly good out of the blocks, and this weekend shows that all that is not the case anymore in 2021.”

“So I have no doubt that they are extremely difficult to beat. They are the ones that are leading the pack. And I think today the racing gods were on our side,” Toto concluded.

Mercedes will hope to carry their momentum in the upcoming race at Imola and try to keep Verstappen and his team in their rearview mirrors, but will the Austrian squad find the pace and defeat the Silver Arrows? We are just days away from getting our answers.

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