Why Mercedes 'doing well' makes Max Verstappen 'very happy'?

Max Verstappen recently revealed that he is pleased with Mercedes' performance over the last couple of races in the first half of the 2022 F1 season. He reasoned his happiness to the challenge the Brackley-based team is posing to Red Bull's main title rival, Ferrari.

Red Bull and Mercedes shared an intense rivalry last season, with their two drivers fighting it out until the very last lap of the season finale. This year, however, things have been rather different.

Ferrari started the 2022 season on an absolute high, securing a double-podium in the season opener in Bahrain. Meanwhile, Red Bull experienced a double-DNF as an outcome of frustrating reliability issues. Over the course of the season, however, Ferrari's position in the championship has swiftly weakened, while Mercedes have quickly caught up with improved pace, car performance, and consistency.

In a post-race media interaction at the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP, Max Verstappen revealed that Mercedes' improvements have made Red Bull's lead in the championship standings stronger. He said:

“It’s good that they [Mercedes] are competitive because then they can steal more points off Ferrari, so I am very happy that they are doing well.”

Speaking about Ferrari's struggles and their swiftly diminishing chances of securing an F1 world championship title this season, he added:

“I find that difficult to comment [on], because nobody does things on purpose. I think everyone always tries to do their best, and sometimes that’s a bit harder to achieve. Everyone always wants to try and get the best result out of it. From my side, I always strive to get the best result out of it and the team [does] as well, sometimes you do that better than other weekends.”

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Max Verstappen condemns "disgusting" behavior of spectators toward Mercedes

Spectators who were seemingly fans of Max Verstappen were seen burning a Mercedes cap during the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP. The reigning world champion described called same "disgusting", saying:

“That’s of course not acceptable. I mean, these individuals… No, I definitely don’t agree with that because that’s just disgusting. But overall, I think the majority of the fans which also were cheering a lot, I think throughout the race and also on the podium for every driver, I think that’s how it should be. And yeah, those videos, or video, of burning merch I think that’s disgusting.”

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel went on to suggest a "zero tolerance" for such individuals within the sport, saying:

“Whoever these people are, they should be ashamed of themselves and they should be banned from racing events for their lives. I think there should be zero tolerance. If people have a good time and drink too much that’s OK, but it doesn’t justify or excuse wrong behaviour. We race as one, so, the fans are a part of that.”

Shortly after this incident, F1 released their ‘Drive It Out’ campaign to tackle issues of online and offline abuse.