Max Verstappen buoyed by 'promising good steps' from new Red Bull

Red Bull

Verstappen buoyed by 'promising good steps' from new Red Bull

Red Bull conducted a shakedown of RB16B at Silverstone

Ian Parkes

Thursday 25 February 2021 15:52

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Max Verstappen is confident Red Bull has made "good steps" with its new RB16B although has shied away from making any rash predictions for the new Formula 1 season.

Red Bull unveiled the car on Tuesday before Verstappen and new team-mate Sergio Perez completed 100 kilometres together in a shakedown filming day at Silverstone on Wednesday.

The team has since been very guarded about the development of the car as there were no images taken across the day, with track action limited to shots of the RB15 driven by Verstappen and reserve driver Alex Albon.

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Verstappen was also wary of drawing early comparisons between last year's RB16 and the new car despite the latter primarily being a carryover of its predecessor, despite changes to certain parts to limit downforce for safety reasons, whilst also carrying a new Honda power unit.

"It's a bit of a carryover from last year, of course for all teams," said Verstappen. "I don't think it's going to be a completely different car anyway.

"As long as it's fast, that's the most important to me, even if it would look pink, purple, any other colour, or shape. Even if it's the weirdest shape possible on the car, if it's fast then I'm happy with that.

"The thing is the floor is a big change, to try to recover all that downforce. It's going to be important and interesting to see who did that the best.

"At the moment I don't know where we are, but there are still a few things we have to be on top of, and Mercedes was still the dominant car towards the end of the season, so we know we have to keep improving.

"I do think we've made good steps, but for sure the competition is not standing still.

"We have to wait and see if it's good enough, and if it's not good enough then let's say competitive enough to fight for the win."

Verstappen will get his first proper run out in the RB16B in the pre-season test in Bahrain from March 12-14.

Asked as to what he will be looking for from the car to give him the confidence he will be more of a title challenger than in the past, he replied: “More grip, more power.

"People always talked about the rear end [of last year's car] being so twitchy, but I think it’s just general grip.

"Of course, we were still lacking a bit but then also we were a bit down on power so we know that. It is also no secret, you could see it.

“So we worked a lot with Honda through the winter and it’s all looking promising but it doesn’t make sense now to hype everything up.

"First, it is more important to get to the track in Bahrain and to do the best amount of learning we can on the car and the engine to optimise everything.”