Verstappen has no input on the 2022 car: 'It's up to the team'

Max Verstappen's focus is now mainly on the upcoming season, in which he hopes to put up an even better fight with Mercedes. From 2022 onwards a lot will change and because of those changes it is very difficult to look further ahead. The team is of course already working on the car for next year, but Verstappen is not (yet) providing input for that.

Difficult to provide input

The Dutchman said this in conversation with Express. "It’s very different so I think it’s very difficult to have any kind of input. It’s down to the engineers, to the designers to come up with the fastest car they can think of and design. It’s going to be very different but let’s hope for the best."

"I just hope it’s better for racing to be honest. That’s all we need because the cars we have now, they are really tricky to follow. Of course, we’ve had some entertaining races but I think it can only get better with cars that are better to follow," but that is somewhat of a future prospect for now, given the 2021 season has yet to begin.

An important year

"To recover that downforce [taken away] will be very critical and we will do that in the best way," the Dutchman referred to the aero modifications that apply for 2021. “I think we have learnt a lot about our car last year which we will try to rectify for this year."

And by that, Verstappen meant that the aerodynamics in 2020 were not optimal, which gave them an extra challenge. Red Bull Racing wants to rectify that this year, but in doing so they are running into some limitations. "We can’t do everything with the tokens but it’s going to be an important year to perform," he said.