Red Bull finally competitive in 2021: 'Verstappen was very complimentary'

Adrian Newey has won titles in Formula 1 with Williams, McLaren and also Red Bull Racing, so he knows better than anyone what it's like to be in a title race. That experience will help him and the team to perform to the best of their abilities this year.

Newey has long been active in F1 as a designer and is regarded as one of the best that Formula 1 has ever known. The Brit designed five world title-winning cars for Williams between 1992 and 1997, designed the world title-winning car for McLaren in 1998, and was behind Red Bull Racing's success between 2010 and 2013.

Red Bull is really going for it

''One of the great things about Red Bull Racing is that we’ve always had a good atmosphere in the Team and that’s meant we’ve also had very good stability in the workforce, going back to a time even before we were first able to mount a title challenge. We lost-out in 2009 but that, and I think the experiences of winning two very tight battles in 2010 and 2012 have moulded us, and given us a level of resilience that comes in very useful now. We know how to be the hunter and the hunted which is a definite strength,'' Newey said on Red Bull's website.

Red Bull has been chasing Mercedes for years, but so far they haven't been able to actually attack it. In 2021 they will. A big advantage for Red Bull was the rule changes in the winter. The teams had to simplify their floor, and where Mercedes suffered a lot of inconvenience, Red Bull made a step forward.

Attack on Mercedes

''I think those changes bought us a reasonable step forward. When we got to Bahrain it looked like we’d read the regulations on the aerodynamic restrictions reasonably well. Checo, of course, hadn’t driven the RB16 but Max instantly felt the new car was a decent step from the previous one and was very complimentary.''

''Coming out of the test we felt we had a competitive package – but you never really know where that’s going to be. You don’t know what engine modes people were running, what fuel loads they had in and so on – trying pre-season to understand where you really are is a minefield. It took the Bahrain Grand Prix to confirm that yes, were competitive. We didn’t win that one – but it’s been nip and tuck since then,'' the Red Bull designer concludes.