Colour or shape of the car are not important to Max: 'As long as it is fast'

Published on 25 February 2021 by Kees-Jan Koster

Max Verstappen reviews his first day in the RB16B. Red Bull Racing were using the filming day at Silverstone to complete the shakedown of the new car, but that brought some limitations. The number of kilometres the car can drive is limited and it must be on the very hard compound tyres.

Max is obviously cautious and is not able to really share his findings: “We will see in Bahrain. We can talk a lot about the new car, but in the end, we have only driven it 100 kilometres on demo tyres and not to the fullest. So there is nothing sensible to say. It was more important to run some laps in the RB16B. We will have to wait till in Bahrain where we can drive on racing rubber. That is where things really start. Then we can start to get the setup right.”

Does the new 2021 car look different, are there any surprises, even though the rules do not allow for many changes? Max: “The car is very much the same. The changes on the floor are big. It will be important to make up for the loss of downforce as good as possible. It will be interesting to see which team was able to do that best. As long as the car is fast. The colour or shape do not really matter, if the car is quick, then I am happy.”

Asked about his expectations for 2021, Max answers: “I am realistic and know it does not make sense to talk about that yet. Let’s talk after the first race. We know where we want to be, what we are working towards and what we try to realise. It looks well, but we will have to wait and see where we are. Mercedes was at the end of 2020 still the dominant team, so we know we will need to keep improving. Nobody stands still. Let’s talk again when we are at a circuit.”