Red Bull pre-season run 'tells they are not happy' with the RB21
F1 News
- Savannah Lenz
Pre-season testing was a highly discussed topic during Sky Sports' The F1 Show: Season Preview. McLaren still seem to be the favoured team for the upcoming season, while Red Bull Racing had a difficult test where they were looking for answers according to Karun Chandhok. The former driver discusses what this could mean for Max Verstappen and the hunt for his fifth world championship.
'They're not happy'
On the topic of Red Bull Racing's pre-season testing, Red Bull had troubles finding their way, Chandhok begins. “To me, that last day underlines that they're not yet happy with the car."
In a Viaplay session hosted in Zandvoort, where GPblog was present, Verstappen talked about the where he insists the team should improve, and mentioned balance as a key factor again. Chandhok also sees that Red Bull were working hard already on that in Bahrain over the course of the pre-season tests to find a combination that works better.
“The fact that we saw Lawson do two stints, he did 44 laps, not quite a full race distance, Max of course didn't and the fact that the other top teams were able to do those 57 lap runs often with both drivers but Red Bull was doing short five-six lap runs.”
He continues, “which were just balance checks - come in make a change - go again make a change - go again - tells me that they're still trying to unlock some potential."
The driver turned analyst also sees that over the winter, not much has changed, and Verstappen still has to do his absolute best to match his rivals. "McLaren was the quickest car in Abu Dhabi last year, and the other three were close. Max was ringing its neck to get a lap time,” he concluded.
Want more Formula 1? Then follow GPblog on our various social media channels!