Newey looks back on Verstappen's world title: 'That's the feeling we had'

Adrian Newey witnessed Max Verstappen win the world championship last season from close up. Red Bull Racing's top designer saw at the start of the season that the Dutchman had a car capable of competing with Mercedes, he told Sky Sports.

For years it seemed impossible to beat Mercedes. With Lewis Hamilton, the German racing team had a driver in house who was winning the world titles and seemed to be on his way to the record of eight world championships. Verstappen put a stop to that last season, as the Dutch driver beat his rival in the final race in Abu Dhabi to take the top spot in the world championship.

Verstappen positive

During testing in the early months of 2021, Newey felt the Austrian team could be in contention for the top spot. Although Sergio Perez, who had only just joined the team, could not say much about the car yet, Verstappen revealed to the team that he was very happy with the performance of his car.

"Checo obviously hadn't driven the RB16, but Max immediately felt that the new car was quite a step up from the previous one and was very complementary," Newey explained in the interview. "When we came out of the test, we felt we had a competitive package."