Newey concern for "backfoot" repeat leaves him guarded against premature Red Bull run

Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has warned against celebrating any momentum in the F1 title fight with Mercedes after letting slip a "healthy" points lead earlier this year.

Following the Austrian double-header in July, Red Bull held a 44-point cushion over Mercedes in the constructors' standings, with Max Verstappen 32 clear of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship.

Just two races later, Mercedes and Hamilton had remarkably claimed the lead after Verstappen crashed out of the British Grand Prix, while both the Dutch driver and team-mate Sergio Perez were involved in incidents at the start of the race in Hungary.

With four races remaining, Verstappen has rebuilt his lead over Hamilton to 19 points after his win in the Mexico City Grand Prix, while Red Bull is only one adrift of the Silver Arrows.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 if the momentum was now firmly behind Red Bull, Newey answered: “You just cannot say, can you. It's been nip and tuck all year.

"Obviously, going into Silverstone we had a really healthy advantage and two races later we were completely on the backfoot so everything can change.”

It was a crushing performance in Mexico, with Verstappen leading home Hamilton by over 16 seconds after snatching the lead at the first corner of the 71-lap race.

Despite entering the weekend as favourites, Newey denied Red Bull had expected to dominate Sunday's race in the way it did.

“No we really didn’t and we obviously struggled in qualifying," he added. "We didn’t quite understand, we didn’t get the tyres right in Q3.

"So being [on the] second row, you’re never too sure but luckily Max had a great start, got the braking just right and from there it was like Austria.

“We seemed to have better deg and just extended away.”

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