Newey himself surprised by Red Bull's performance: 'This was unexpected'

Initially, the field seemed close together in Bahrain. Largely it was, but far behind Max Verstappen. The Dutchman drove away from Charles Leclerc at the start and put the rest of the field 22 seconds behind. This not only to his own surprise, but also that of Adrian Newey.

Verstappen started the new Formula 1 season with a Grand Slam: pole position, leading every lap and fastest lap. A sledgehammer blow for his rivals, who seemed to be closing in after free practice and qualifying. Sergio Perez also drove a fine race, closing in on second place after starting fifth.

Newey surprised by Red Bull performance

"I have to say it was unexpected," Newey admitted to Viaplay. "The gap that we had through practice - we were not weren't totally happy with the car, but it all came right in the race." However, there are always areas for improvement to think about, the Red Bull Racing CTO stresses.

Newey attributes the RB20's strong performance to the entire team. "It's our whole team, the engineering team, everyone behind the car. All the guys back in Milton Keynes have done a tremendous effort to get it to here, to have the performance we had today," Newey said.