'Red Bull is now capable of taking multiple victories'

Max Verstappen managed to finish on the podium many times in 2020, and the Dutchman also took a couple of victories. Many analysts, pundits and experts attribute this mainly to the situation in the race and Verstappen's ability to rise above himself and the material. This is in stark contrast to Alexander Albon, who was only on the podium twice. Cause of the difference: the car.

Victories are a certainty

Red Bull Racing came out of the winter test very satisfied. No strange or annoying problems, two drivers who are satisfied with the car and a power source that seems to perform well. In short, everything seems to be coming together now and that makes grabbing podiums in 2021 an even greater certainty. At least that is what Craig Scarborough says in an interview with Peter Windsor on YouTube.

"The performance says everything. We know that Red Bull certainly will be there in the fight. We can’t compare them directly with Mercedes because of how their test went. But certainly things are looking good. There’s two things. Clearly, Honda has done a lot of work with their power unit over the winter. As they said they would and it looks like they delivered.

"And then on the Red Bull chassis, great things. They did a major change on the suspension as we suspected would be the case when we saw the launch car." This, according to Scarborough, they were very careful within the token system, because too big a change would require a token that they no longer had available. So they worked within the margins in what is allowed in terms of development or customization without having to use a token.

Struggle of Albon

Scarborough continued: "But at the same time in improving the aerodynamics, they actually managed to rip the car from the rear inbalance it had last year. Which obviously hurted Albon’s performance so much. […] This car feels so much better, it looks better on track, so some of the bugbears from last years car has been eradicated which bodes well for both outright performance and equally knowing that hopefully both drivers now can deliver points."

"When you look at the constructors' championship. That looks really good that they can get two points finishes, essentially two podiums at lots of races. And their is wins in this car almost certainly at some point during the year. This bodes well for a competitive year in terms of someone bringing the fight to Mercedes. It really does look good for Red Bull at the moment."

And with that, once again, a very positive note on the car of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Mercedes still have some issues to iron out where Red Bull are, based on the winter test, ready to go. At the end of the month, we will see the first showdown at the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain.