F1 News
"The better Perez does, the more respect he will command from the Verstappens"
- GPblog.com
After the winter testMax Verstappen and Red Bull Racing choose not to draw any premature conclusions. Last season especially Helmut Marko wanted to make some high-profile predictions, but he's also been remarkably modest this week. Jan Lammers as an analyst however does dare to make a firm prediction.
When can we say with certainty that Verstappen can fight for the title? "My feeling says right now," says Lammers at NOS Studio Sport. "It just all looks good. Especially when you start looking into what Honda has done here and there and you take into account that Red Bull has been leading the way with aerodynamics for years. Mercedes has always had an edge with the engine anyway, but I think Honda has made an important step now."
Honda has brought development forward
Honda have decided for their final year in Formula 1 to bring forward the development of the engine for 2022 by a year. So that's relatively a huge upgrade that's now on the RB16B and as there were no reliability issues at the winter test, you can assume that the Japanese haven't taken any unnecessary risks with this.
Verstappen will also be backed by the experienced Sergio Perez. Lammers is also concerned that a faster second driver will cause problems for the team. "The better Perez performs, the more respect he will command from the Verstappens, in this case Max. Then you can also do more together."