Appropriately, Mercedes technical boss James Allison is allowing himself a little schadenfreude as he suggests Red Bull has gone the wrong way with its latest upgrade.

Winning four of the first five races of the season it looked to be 'business as usual for Max Verstappen and Red Bull, the Dutchman having had to retire in Melbourne due to a brakes issue.

Beaten by Lando Norris in Miami, Verstappen was back atop the podium at Imola, though Norris was just 0.725s behind. Then came Monaco where the Dutchman finished a distant sixth, beaten by the Ferrari and McLaren duos.

James Allison believes that Red Bull will resume its winning ways after Spain, however he feels that the Austrian team is currently compromised having gone in the wrong direction with its latest upgrade.

"My guess is that as soon as there's a decent range of cornering speeds, they will be useful again," he said. "But it does look as if their upgrade was a downgrade, so fingers crossed that will really f*** them up," he smiled.

"That makes life hard because the moment you stop trusting your tools, you back track and you start losing time," he added. "And time is your biggest friend and losing it is your worst enemy."

Currently fourth in the pecking order, Allison is confident that the Silver Arrows are closing the gap to the front.

"Where we are now seems to be better than where we were two races ago," he said. "Hopefully it will be somewhat better in a couple of races from now.

"We've gone from being really embarrassingly crap or not good enough in the beginning of the year, to being near the fight," he added. "A little bit more will get us right in the melee."

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