Mercedes and Red Bull going after each other’s throats has begun again in F1. At the Canadian GP, the Silver Arrows, and Lewis Hamilton specifically, were the fastest men on track. The new front wing configuration suddenly spiked their overall performance, leapfrogging the Top 3 in raw pace. Even though Max Verstappen brought the victory home for Red Bull, the Christian Horner-led team wasn’t satisfied. Mercedes’ revolutionary front-wing upgrade pricked them, with reports claiming they launched an unofficial complaint against it. Is this an actual concern, or is it uneasiness stemming from their old rival’s comeback?

Lewis Hamilton set the Montreal track ablaze in all practice sessions. Even George Russell was forced to study his teammate’s data to get an edge in qualifying. The Mercedes aerodynamics team stepped up to incorporate higher bending capacity in the W15’s front wing, emulating McLaren. While Max Verstappen commended them for being the fastest car in Canada, Red Bull questioned their upgrade’s legality.

F1 pundit Richard Ready reckons Mercedes will now have all eyes on them with this meteoric rise in pace. And this could also be why Red Bull feels vulnerable. “Because Mercedes did some killer laps with Hamilton in the race, people are starting to pay attention,” Ready said on the Missed Apex podcast. “I am not suggesting Hamilton’s gonna come back and win the championship, but it is a sign that Mercedes have rattled the grid a little bit with Red Bull now lodging an informal complaint about the Mercedes front wing.”

Despite their increased pace, Hamilton’s errors, coupled with Mercedes’ imperfect tire strategy, cost him a podium. The 7-time champion called it “one of the worst races” of his career. This led to his fans accusing the team of ‘sabotaging’ him, and such negativity overshadowed their best result of 2024. However, F1 presenter Natalie Pinkham has defended him from the critics.

Natalie Pinkham defends Lewis Hamilton after the Canadian GP fiasco

Both Mercedes drivers were very self-critical after the Canadian GP. George Russell blamed himself for an “ugly race” and Lewis Hamilton too shouldered the blame for his “poor performance” in a race where they could’ve finished 1-2. Hamilton’s unexpected self-critique caught many off guard, with Natalie Pinkham commending him for his honest admission.

“You are taking too deep a dive into the psychology. Whatever he says, people will spin it,” she said on the F1 Nation podcast. “They say ‘one moment you blame the upgrades, then you blame the team.’ No, he’s holding his hands up. Here is a good guy, blaming himself, saying ‘I wasn’t good enough today’. I thought it was amazing to hear. Here is a man who doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone, and he was still prepared to own it, in that moment.”

Though Mercedes has caught up with the frontrunners, the European tripleheader will be the true test of their upgrades. The traditional circuits will see Red Bull back to its best, and Ferrari will be hunting for redemption after a double DNF in Canada. Will Toto Wolff & Co. succeed in sustaining their pace? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.