F1 News
F1 insider: "The RB16 is ready to challenge Mercedes”
- Lennard Verhage
After the winter tests everyone more or less agreed: Red Bull Racing seems to be in very good shape where Ferrari disappointed a bit. Mercedes seems to be the beating again and in Australia it had to happen. We'll have to wait longer as the season hasn't started yet but the RB16 is really ready to fight.
Time to shine
Formula 1 insider Leo Turrini says in conversation with the Italian website OASport that he was ready for a fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen: "This year the Dutchman has a car that seems to be ready to shine from the start of the championship.
"He (Verstappen) has been in the best conditions at the start of the season since the advent of the hybrid era in 2014. In previous seasons the Milton-Keynes team always had a somewhat slow start", which is not the case according to this year's winter tests.
"The RB16 proved to be competitive during the tests and is ready to make things difficult for Mercedes when the season really starts".
No success for Ferrari
Furthermore, Turrini states that Ferrari could not have competed directly with the SF1000 at Albert Park. "The SF1000 didn't start in the right way and even Mattia Binotto frankly admitted that in Spain. Let's be clear, at Albert Park the SF1000 could not have fought for victories".
Here Turrini quotes the words of Binotto: "The boss of the Maranello team said the new car would need a couple of Grands Prix to reach the desired level, so the debut certainly wouldn't have been good".