Verstappen hopes to make things difficult for Mercedes with Perez this year

Max Verstappen was mostly fighting alone with the Mercedes in 2020. His teammate Alexander Albon was more often than not unable to keep up with Mercedes, which meant they couldn't help each other out. With Sergio Perez set to join the team in 2021, Verstappen hopes they will be able to put up a good fight.

Battle with Mercedes

The Dutchman says in the RB16B Debrief on the Red Bull website. "Sergio has been in F1 now for a while and has proven himself to be a good points scorer and I hope that as a Team we can make it difficult for Mercedes especially, as they are still the favourites." But to achieve that you don't just need good drivers, a good car is also of great importance.

Helmut Marko said that Red Bull Racing, in conjunction with Honda, had the best preparation in seven years. Verstappen agrees, who also points out that cooperation with Honda is very important. The Dutchman says: "At the moment we need to focus on the season ahead and try to make that work in the best way possible together with Honda."

Best efforts

"What happens in the future is still a question mark but one thing I know for sure is that everyone is going to give their best and will be pushing flat out to make it work."

This year's season also features a special stop after it was cancelled last year: Zandvoort. Verstappen, however, is not much concerned with that yet. "With regard to the Dutch Grand Prix, I’m not too focussed on Zandvoort… yet. We still need to start the first race. When we get closer and the hype is building up then it’s going to be really nice. I really hope that fans can come to the track and that there’s a lot of orange around."