F1 News

Horner knows what to do: “That's where we need to be strong next year”

Horner knows what to do: “That's where we need to be strong next year”

21-12-2020 16:16 Last update: 18:41
4

GPblog.com

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lower revenues for Formula 1, F1-cars will remain largely the same in 2021. However, many teams will try to improve the 2020 car as much as possible over the winter. So will Red Bull.

Very encouraging

Red Bull Racing was still lagging behind at the start of the season, but managed to improve significantly throughout the season. Max Verstappen's win at the end of the season was a good example of this. “I think that particularly at a circuit like Abu Dhabi, to take that [winning] kind of performance into the winter, is very, very encouraging," says Christian Horner on Motorsport.com.

The bar for 2021 is - once again - high. "We need a car that performs at a whole variety of circuits, which Mercedes have been very good at producing. That's where we need to be strong next year. We've got to be strong on all types of circuit, particularly with a 23 race calendar.”

Not from scratch

For 2021 the development of the chassis is frozen and the teams in the base will use the same car as last season. However, aerodynamic adjustments can still be made and teams can use two development sticks.

Red Bull thinks that the car will remain the same for about sixty percent. "It's not a start from scratch again. Obviously a large percentage of the car does carry over, but where we start in Barcelona [testing] in a couple of months' time is going to be pretty much where we finish [this year] with the relevant upgrades on it.”