“The last two races have definitely been really difficult for us as a whole, as a team.

“Fortunately, with two terrible races for us, we ended up being very, very close in points so the race is still very much on.”

Meanwhile, Verstappen, who was alongside the seven-time world champion in the press conference ahead of the French Grand Prix, agreed that due to the nature of the track at Paul Ricard, Mercedes would be stronger.

“I think street circuits can be really tricky with tyre warm-up, getting in at the right window, sometimes Q3 we have seen red flags and stuff, it’s a bit more upsetting,” he said.