Max Verstappen took pole position at Paul Ricard, where Mercedes has dominated in the past.
The Dutchman’s shape was helped by Red Bull’s decision to use its low downforce rear wing configuration which helped increase its speed on the straights.
But while Mercedes admitted that Verstappen had an advantage thanks to its additional top speed, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff doesn’t believe that he would have been faster even with less downforce and drag.
“We believe that when it comes to simulation [tells us], it was the slower version, “Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
“You can see that they were fast on the straights. If we screw on the wing with little downforce, we will lose a lot more in the corners.”
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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said that the rear wing disparity between his team and Mercedes explained the speed differences over the lap.
“We took a little downforce from the car, you can probably tell from the size of the rear wing between us and the Mercedes,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“We use less energy in Sector 2, so we drive faster on the straight because we have less resistance there.
“We still manage to set a very good time in sector 3, that helps us to set a competitive lap time here. Hopefully we’re good for tomorrow’s race.”
Wolff said the ultimate problem for Mercedes was their lack of pace compared to Red Bull despite the downforce.
“[It’s a] difficult weekend because we just don’t have the pace, “he said.” That’s the truth. It looked a lot worse than it did in the end [where] we’re finished, but we just have to win everywhere. There’s no part that we don’t look at to improve our game. “
In addition to a smaller rear wing that helps Red Bull on the straights, the team is also using fresh Honda engines for the French GP this weekend.
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