Red Bull need to learn from 2020 "mistakes" to challenge Mercedes in '21 - Verstappen

Max Verstappen believes Red Bull must learn from mistakes made in previous years to have any hope of fighting Mercedes for championship titles next season.

Verstappen, who ended as the third-best driver behind the Mercedes pair, gave the team a momentum boost ahead of the winter by dominating the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

After only his second race of the season, Verstappen insisted the team could not fall back on the result in the UAE.

“I hope we learn from the previous years that we have to be stronger in the beginning of the season to give them a bit of a harder time.

“I didn’t expect before I got here to win the race and be on pole. In general, I think the car performed really strong. I was very happy with that, it was a great way to finish the season.

“We know we have to work hard over the winter to keep getting stronger because you can’t rely on this result. We know we have to improve the car and we know the areas, but I hope we learn from the last few years.

“We go into the winter with a good feeling. It’s always nice to win the last race, especially with a year like this year, it’s been hard on everyone. I just hope we learn from our mistakes in the beginning of the year.”

It was Verstappen’s 10th win of his career and his first since he stepped on the top of the podium at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.

It was a natural progression in Abu Dhabi for Verstappen, who finished third at the track in 2018 and second last year, and it was all set up by beating Valterri Bottas to pole by a narrow margin on Saturday.

“It was really enjoyable [in qualifying] already, of course,” said Verstappen. “But today we had a good start and from there on you look after the tyres and the car had a really good balance.

“It was really enjoyable today and we did everything alright. Once you start upfront you can control the pace a bit more and it makes your life a bit easier.

“I saw they [Mercedes] were dropping off behind me, so then I could take it a bit easier, I had to go through a bit of traffic, but overall it was just a very strong race for the team.”

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