George Russell recommended Purple Bull has not proven its true tempo benefit this yr due to fears Method One will step in to gradual them down.
The Mercedes driver’s prediction of Purple Bull profitable all 23 races this yr remains to be on, with the reigning world champions going three-from-three to kick off the season.
There are lots of examples of F1 stepping in with rule modifications aimed toward slowing a dominant automobile and Russell thinks Purple Bull is cautious of that occuring once more.
“For positive they’re holding again,” Russell mentioned after retiring from Sunday’s race.
“They’re nearly embarrassed to indicate their full potential as a result of the sooner they appear globally the extra the game goes to attempt to maintain them again by some means.
“Realistically they most likely have seventh-tenths benefit over the sphere. Max has no cause to be pushing it, nor has Purple Bull.
“They’ve carried out a extremely nice job, to be truthful to them, cannot take something away. We clearly must up our sport.”
Purple Bull has seemed to be in a category of its personal this yr.
Russell briefly led a Mercedes one-two on the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday as the previous world champions confirmed a transparent enchancment on their sluggish begin to the season.
A automobile failure took him out of competition, earlier than Verstappen made gentle work of Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton when he had the good thing about F1’s Drag Discount System (DRS) overtaking help.
Purple Bull already holds a 58 level lead over Aston Martin within the constructors’ championship, with Mercedes an additional 9 factors adrift.