Christian Horner believes Mercedes will be ‘quick’ at French GP and a ‘contender’ for rest of the season

Mercedes have secured three podiums in a row and look to have got on top of their porpoising and bouncing issues

(Getty)

Christian Horner believes Mercedes will be “quick” at this weekend’s French Grand Prix and a contender throughout the rest of the season after a tricky first half of the year.

Mercedes, who have won the Constructors’ Championship eight years in a row, have struggled to control the porpoising and bouncing that has slowed down their W13 car and made it uncomfortable to drive at times for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Yet the past three races, with Hamilton earning podiums, have seen improvement for the Silver Arrows, and after another strong showing in Austria last week, Red Bull boss Horner believes this week at Circuit Paul Ricard will suit Mercedes as Toto Wolff’s team look to “bring themselves back into the game”.

“We’ll expect them to be quick in [Paul] Ricard,” Horner said, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “They are showing flashes of being there or thereabouts.

“The last two races have been pretty decent for them and there’s been no sign I think of any porpoising at all, so they seem to be slowly bringing themselves back into the game.”

Mercedes currently lie third in the Constructors’ Championship, 122 points behind Red Bull in first and 66 points off Ferrari in second, and are yet to finish higher than third in any race.

Yet Horner - who was embroiled in a fierce battle last year with Mercedes and Wolff as Hamilton and Max Verstappen fought for the Drivers Championship - feels his arch rivals could well be competing for race wins soon as they look to close the gap to the front two.

“I think they will be a contender,” Horner added. “They keep consistently scoring points.

“I’m not sure how far off they are in the Constructors’ or Drivers’ [championships] at the moment but sometimes having more cars in play is a good thing, sometimes it might be a bad thing. But I think for the fans it’s great to have six cars competing for victories.”