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Red Bull comes up with a new version of RB16: "Want to go right into the attack"
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix in 2018 and 2019 and Helmut Marko hopes that his Dutch pupil can repeat that trick next season. In any case, Red Bull Racing is doing well with its confidence and Marko says that both the RB16 and the Honda engine will have the necessary updates when the team arrives in Spielberg next month.
"Of course, that gives us a lot of self-confidence," Marko said in an interview with RTL. With the German medium, the Austrian indicates that 'Mercedes has never been strong here. "They've always had problems. But we don't know what the proportions are. We know that the winter tests are deceptive and disguised. We come here with versions of the car that have never been tried."
Honda's also coming up with updates
Not only improvements have been made to the RB16, they have not been idle in Japan either "The development of Honda has continued", said Marko, who thinks that Red Bull also has a motor advantage with the two Grands Prix on the Red Bull Ring. "The Honda engine is also better at higher altitudes. But we don't know. We only know that Ferrari was not at the level of Mercedes and Red Bull in the tests. But perhaps they can catch up in the meantime."
The advisor of the Austrian race stable is then asked if Red Bull will take risks immediately at the start of the season. "Since I'm assuming the first eight weekends in Europe will be fixed - that would be enough for a world championship - you need to be completely 'on' from the first race and make the most of it. The overseas races are still at great risk with the coronavirus. These races are planned, but no one knows if they can actually take place. So we want to go full attack from the first race."
Red Bull in advantage by summer start
2020 should be the year in which Verstappen becomes the youngest world champion ever. Marko tells that Red Bull has been working towards it for a long time. "But we've had setbacks time and time again. But we now have a solid engine supplier with Honda and we have learned from past mistakes. Above all, we weren't really competitive until the middle of the season. Now that we are starting in the middle of the season, our preparation has been much better. Mercedes and Hamilton are clearly the favourites, but we see ourselves as the first and serious challenger", he concluded.