"That's why Red Bull is ahead for me at the moment"

Ralf Schumacher watched the winter tests with a lot of interest last week. After three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit the conclusion could be drawn that Red Bull Racing seem to have their act together, while for Mercedes it was basically one of the worst starts of the season.

"First of all, I'm happy with how good the Red Bull is," Schumacher kicks off in an interview with F1 Insider. Speaking to the German medium, he states that the RB16B looks very good. "The McLaren looks very strong with Mercedes as well. Ferrari still have to fight. Their performance wasn't really impressive."

Red Bull gets off to a flying start

The biggest rival is of course Mercedes, but things are not going smoothly there in 2021 for the time being. "Mercedes seem to be having problems with the car. The rear seemed very unstable. That's why Red Bull is ahead for me at the moment. But it's also clear that Mercedes haven't shown everything yet and have been driving with more fuel on board. They need to get the problems under control as soon as possible, otherwise it will be exciting compared to Red Bull."

Schumacher feels that Toto Wolff's team has not quite got its act together yet, particularly in terms of the rear wing. "It seems that the rear wing, which is extremely important for a stable rear end, is not always blown optimally by the airflow. So we are talking about an aerodynamic problem here. From experience I know it's not so easy to solve something like that," said the man who has 180 Grands Prix behind his name in motorsport's premier class.