Verstappen jokes about Mercedes: 'They'll probably have a bad car again'

This weekend the F1 season will finally start in Bahrain. With Max Verstappen as reigning world champion, Red Bull Racing will have high expectations for this season. With major changes to this year's bolides, there is still a lot unclear about the proportions, but Red Bull seemed to come out on top in the test week.

Verstappen himself cannot deny that Red Bull looked strong in the test week, but in the FIA press conference prior to the first race weekend, he also pointed to Mercedes, the dominant team in the hybrid era. "They will probably be at the back. According to their statements, they already have a bad car since the winter test in 2016," jokes the Dutchman. He then admits that he expects Mercedes to fight for victory this weekend.

Honda still closely involved

Due to the new rule changes, many changes have been made to the look of this year's F1 cars. At Red Bull, they also added the fact that they will have to develop their own engines completely for the first time this season. In 2021 Honda announced that they would stop as an engine supplier after the season, after which Red Bull decided to take the reins themselves with Red Bull Powertrains.

Yet there is still a lot of influence from Honda, Verstappen acknowledges. As announced beforehand, Honda will remain involved in engine development this season, to help Red Bull as much as possible in the transition to producing their own engines. "It may not seem like it, but actually not very much has changed," Verstappen concludes.