Verstappen 'reveals': 'Our next upgrade is without sidepods'

Mercedes and Ferrari changed the concept of their cars, crawling closer to Red Bull Racing with their design in Barcelona. Still, the difference between Max Verstappen's Red Bull and the rest of the field was once again huge. Christian Horner said earlier that he was flattered that rival teams are taking this approach. Max Verstappen also has an opinion on this.

At the press conference - which GPblog attended - after qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, the Dutchman was asked what he thinks of being copied by the others? "I think our next upgrade will be without side pods. Then everyone can go back to that," Verstappen laughed. "It's just how we designed the car, but it's not only the side pods. It's a lot of things that have to come together. I'm not even the aero specialist here."

Verstappen could only agree that Red Bull has done their homework very well in recent times, at least better than teams like Mercedes and Ferrari. "We learned a lot over the years. Now with the new regulation, we hit the ground running and we understood what was going on. That helps a lot. You can immediately focus on other things."

Other teams hope to catch up with Red Bull at some point. "Hopefully, we can keep that momentum going. Because everyone is, of course, pushing very hard to catch up. Also, from our side, we are never satisfied. We always want more," Verstappen said.