Max Verstappen believes it would be “stupid” for Red Bull to go in to this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix thinking it is ahead of Formula 1 rivals Mercedes.
Red Bull heads to the first race of 2021 in good shape after a promising pre-season testing, with the team tipped to challenge for victory at the Bahrain International Circuit.
While the RB16B has shown encouraging speed and reliability, Mercedes in contrast suffered a troubled three days in Bahrain as it searches for answers for its cars rear-end instability.
The Brackley-based outfit deemed Red Bull as clear favourites after the test, but Verstappen is remaining modest over the team’s prospects insisting there is more to come from Mercedes.
“The test was a positive start for us and you can always be happy when you get that number of laps in and get a good understanding of the car but it doesn’t say anything about pure performance,” Verstappen said.
“I know people are excited and think we are just saying this, but Mercedes are still the favourites – how can they not be when they have won seven world championships in a row?
“I’m sure Mercedes also want people to think we are the favourites and put the pressure on us, but we are just focussed on ourselves. You can be sure that everyone in this team and at Honda is pushing to beat them and anyone else who may be quick this year.
“I see every season as a new opportunity to beat them, but we would be stupid to expect that fight to be easy and look at testing and think we are ahead. I personally can’t wait until we are all pushing in Q3.
“That is when you will see everyone at full power with low fuel and that is the time to see who developed performance wise, and then in the race we will see who can keep that performance over a race distance. Let’s hope we can be good at both.”
Verstappen’s new team-mate Sergio Perez sees not “a lot of point” in Red Bull trying to work out where it lies in comparison to Mercedes on true pace.
“I think the more you try to figure out what other people are doing the more lost you can get, so there isn’t a lot of point in reading into anything,” he said. “We just have to wait until qualifying and see where everyone is at.”
Verstappen admits he has a better feel in the RB16B compared to the unpredictable nature of the 2020 car, which carries Red Bull’s hopes of winning a first title since 2013.
“You can’t talk about proper limitations yet as we have only driven in hot conditions and every track needs different things, but I have a good feel for the car,” Verstappen said.
“From my side the car was stable enough to feel comfortable. There are always things to do better but we are always making improvements and that is what the engineers will do.”
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