THE CHALLENGERS
For the past four seasons Red Bull has come on strong in the final races – but only after starting from a low bar. This year, says team principal Christian Horner, it’s ready to come tearing out of the blocks…
Crazy to think it’s been almost a decade since Red Bull last won a world championship in Formula 1, but such has hybridisation skewed the picture against the team that dominated the latter part of F1’s V8 era.
In the early days, circa 2014-16, the inadequacy of Red Bull’s customer Renault engines provided a clear excuse. But since 2017 the picture has become somewhat fuzzier. Rule changes back then were designed to tip the scales back towards aerodynamic advantage, playing to Red Bull’s traditional strengths, but still it wasn’t enough to overcome the odds.
To its great credit, Red Bull is the only team to have won races with two different engines during the hybrid era. But both of those engines, though improved, have trailed Mercedes for power and reliability, forcing Red Bull to overreach with its chassis to try to make up the deficit – much in the way Max Verstappen talks about his needing to drive too near the limit to keep up.
We’ve seen this trend consistently since 2017: Red Bull starting on the back foot trying to get a handle on its intricate box of aerodynamic tricks, then coming on strong in the second half of the season as the car’s narrow, peaky sweet spot is found – this usually dovetailing with Mercedes tailing off development having already established an unassailable lead in the standings.
The unusual nature of last year meant
Red Bull combined three planned upgrades (Melbourne, Spain and Austria) into one for the delayed first race of the season. Without the usual track running data to feed back into the system, Red Bull became stymied trying to fix the unpredictable handling characteristics of RB16 that first became apparent during winter testing in Barcelona. Much of those aerodynamic “anomalies”, as Red Bull described them, were traced to a change in philosophy at the front of the car, where a ‘cape’ device pioneered by Mercedes was adopted.
Meanwhile, Mercedes made a big leap forward with its own chassis (featuring the unique Dual-axis Steering system and clever rear suspension), and also the engine – cranking a near-0.4s advantage over Red Bull in 2019 out to nearer nine tenths of a second in 2020, which took the remainder of the season to reverse. By the final two races of last year, Verstappen was bang on the pace, but of course by then it was already far too late.
To break the cycle requires Red Bull starting this season on the front foot, and there are several factors that may aid the team in its quest this year. First up is the large carryover of components from last season to this, in so far as Red Bull’s 2021 car is officially labelled a ‘B-spec’ of 2020’s. Certain limited changes have been permitted (through the token system) and mandated (particularly to the aerodynamic profile of the floor), but the rules limit both Mercedes’ opportunity to stretch further away again, and Red Bull’s scope for overtrying to keep pace. The fact Red Bull was fastest in the final race of 2020 in Abu Dhabi – a traditional Mercedes stronghold – bodes well.
Red Bull’s engine partner has also been busy laying the ground for a title bid before it steps away from Formula 1 at the end of this year.
Developments originally slated for 2022 have been expedited, and dyno work with Red Bull’s fuel partner Exxonmobil has yielded promising results. It’s clear Red Bull-honda is resolutely focused on a proper title bid in 2021, despite the looming challenge of 2022’s major rules reset. In team boss Christian Horner’s words, Honda has “thrown everything at it” for this season. After that, of course, Red Bull will take over from Honda and enter a new era as a full-blown manufacturer team in its own right.
Conversely, Mercedes – the beneficiary of remarkable stability through the past seven seasons – is facing up to a period of flux. Toto Wolff, recovering from a winter bout of COVID-19, will have his hands full managing a new major shareholder, drivers both out of contract, an engine department recently under new leadership, and a set of regulations – particularly this year’s aero restrictions and budget cap – against which his team stands to lose most. Dare we say Toto has looked a little drawn in the build-up to this new campaign...
“If they go out and win the first race by half a lap he’ll be looking a lot less stressed,” replies Horner. Wolff often talks about how defeat and difficulty drives his team to never relent in its quest to reach new heights, but regular battering has had a stimulating effect on Red Bull too.
“It’s an ethos here – a ‘can do’ attitude,” says Horner. “We’re a team of racers. Nobody enjoys losing. And that’s the biggest motivation. Racing DNA runs through the business, and even when we find ourselves in difficult positions, we engineer our way out of them. We’ve been a competitive team – even though we haven’t been
“WE’RE A TEAM OF RACERS. NOBODY ENJOYS LOSING. AND THAT’S THE BIGGEST MOTIVATION. RACING DNA RUNS THROUGH THE BUSINESS, AND EVEN WHEN WE FIND OURSELVES IN DIFFICULT POSITIONS, WE ENGINEER OUR
WAY OUT OF THEM”
CHRISTIAN HORNER
able to challenge for championships in recent years, we’ve still been winning races; we’ve still on merit been able to take on and beat Mercedes; one of two teams [the other being Ferrari] to do that over the last seven years.
“There’s a sense of determination to get back into a competitive position. Nobody can predict the year ahead. Mercedes has such strength and depth in their organisation now – with the success that they’ve enjoyed over the last few years, they’re a formidable opponent. We’re having to extend ourselves fully to, hopefully, put a competitive campaign together against them.”
This will be vitally important this year, because Verstappen has a performance clause in his contract (which is due to expire at the end of 2023) and Horner is on record saying Max will no doubt be “top of Mercedes’ list” should it need to find a replacement for Hamilton.
Verstappen was typically guarded about Red Bull’s prospects for this season, saying: “I just don’t want to hype things up at the moment – I want to stay low-key and focus on our job. We should do the talking on the track, not next to the track. That’s what I prefer”.
But after two seasons evolving into Red Bull’s undisputed team leader in the wake of Daniel Ricciardo’s departure, Verstappen is driving superbly and is clearly ready for a tilt at Hamilton’s crown. It’s up to Red Bull and Honda to give him sharp enough tools to do the job…
“They’re a quality organisation – they’re the reigning world champions and absolutely favourites by some margin going into this championship,” says Horner of Mercedes. “But there is always evolution in sport, nothing stays the same forever, and we just want to make sure that we’re at the forefront when things do.
“Our target is to come out of the starting blocks in the strongest position. We’ve had a degree of continuity with a large percentage of the car remaining the same over the winter, [but] it’s never one race that dictates things, you need two or three events together to get a real flavour. So, I would think by the time we get to Portimão
– race three, race four – you’re going to have a clearer picture of how the land is lying.
“Of course, you never know what your [other] opponents have been doing. Ferrari for sure haven’t been resting on their laurels. But the one thing you can guarantee is we never give up – we’ll always fight until the very end.”