Reuters
Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in action during the race Pool via REUTERS/Giuseppe Cacace
Reuters
Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in action during the race Pool via REUTERS/Giuseppe Cacace
Over the last few years, the Red Bull cars have specifically been among the trickiest ones to work with. While quite a few drivers have taken to the wheel, only Max Verstappen has really gotten to grips with the machinery.
Naturally, one of the best teams on the grid introduced constant updates throughout 2020 to fix those issues. So, any progress on those problems is something Red Bull will monitor, and team principal Christian Horner believes that that might only be seen once they get down to racing in Bahrain.
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Horner stated, “I don’t know. We’ll see when the car drives! We gained a lot of understanding last year.” (translated via Google Translate)
We recovered from the problems faced in the course of 2020 season, said Horner
“I think part (of the problems) was due to the complexity of our wind tunnel, which has its limits in some ways. So we will only know what progress we have made when we race from Bahrain.”
The RB16B is not expected to be extremely different from its 2020 challenger. But the team would look to build on the performance they generated in the last few races, especially the Abu Dhabi GP.
Reuters
Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – December 13, 2020 Red Bull’s Max Verstappen passes the chequered flag to win the race Pool via REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
“And of course you no longer have the advantage of being able to test, so you have to test components on a Grand Prix track or in the virtual world.”
“So I think we were lured on the wrong track at the beginning of the year. And We recovered from this in the course of the 2020 season,” concluded Horner.
Red Bull would need a lot more reliability from their cars in 2021 to beat Mercedes
Starting slow can always have a detrimental effect on a team that is trying to win a championship. With Red Bull, mechanical failures and inferior power compared to Mercedes alternated to cause a gap in the 2020 standings.
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SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing Red Bull-TAG Heuer RB12 TAG Heuer leads Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes F1 WO7 Mercedes PU106C Hybrid turbo on track during the Formula One Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
But the RB16B in 2021 certainly has to hit the mark from the very first race in Bahrain. It is only then that they would have a chance of going toe-to-toe with the defending champions.
Therefore, Red Bull would be eagerly waiting for winter testing to begin in a few weeks’ time. For that would provide the first signs of improvement the team have made since the last campaign.
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