Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner reckons Mercedes is vulnerable to making mistakes when under pressure, and believes his team's traditionally stronger form in the second half of the season will only increase that strain.
Red Bull has taken three wins this year so far, the same as Mercedes, and just one shy of championship leaders Ferrari, but early season struggles have cost the Milton Keynes team, which is 88 points adrift of Ferrari.
However Red Bull has outscored Mercedes, which is 68 points ahead, by five points across the previous five races, thanks in part to a rare double DNF for the Anglo-German outfit, but Horner believes the added pressure of a true title fight is causing Mercedes problems.
"I think historically post summer break we have always been very strong to the end of the championship, so if we can get to the summer break still in contention, I’m reasonably confident we can have a good final third to the championship at tracks that will play more to our strengths," he is quoted as saying by Racer.
"Then it starts to get really interesting because pressure builds, whether it be with the drivers, strategists, the pit crew, the setup, engineers — it just builds throughout an entire organisation. Then you see the strength and depth and character of a team.
"I think that if you look at Mercedes’ history their only main competition has been internal between their own drivers, so they have never been in a position — or the management of the team has never been in a position — where they have had to go head to head through an entire season. And, of course, the closer you get towards the end of the year the more the pressure builds."
Horner added: "It’s a new experience for them. There are obviously very capable people there, but our role if we get close enough will be to put pressure on, because we’ve seen that when you do put pressure on Mercedes mistakes do happen."
