Red Bull are yet to mount a championship challenge in the turbo-hybrid era but that could be about to change. It’s been eight years since Sebastian Vettel led the team to a fourth consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ title so Red Bull are desperate to return to their glory days and end the Mercedes reign. The team have played down their chances throughout the week as they look to do their talking on the race track this weekend.
An almost perfect pre-season test for Red Bull
Pre-season testing was nearly perfect for Red Bull. Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the three-day test in Bahrain with plenty of lap time left on the table. In recent years, the Red Bull car has been twitchy and unpredictable, but their 2021 machine looks like it’s on rails. Verstappen and new teammate Sergio Perez were able to place the RB16B where they wanted and could stand on the throttle pedal very early when coming out of the corners. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko claimed it was Red Bull’s “best ever test since their existence” in 2005. Perez’s ability to quickly adapt to the new car and environment was very telling. On Saturday evening, Perez matched the lap times of Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes on the long runs. This was the Mexican driver’s first day in the car. There is a good potential in the car,” said Perez after pre-season testing. “I am pretty excited [for the season]. I think we've got a good car underneath us and the team is doing a fantastic job. “We are improving every time we are in the car, we seem to be getting more comfortable and we were able to get through different set-up items.”
Perez is set to play a major role in the championship battle. His job is to do what Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon failed to do in 2019 and 2020, be close enough to Mercedes to cause them problems. Verstappen has been forced to fight the Silver Arrows by himself for the past two seasons and the hope is that Perez can get in front of one of the Mercedes drivers or be within their pit window. Perez’s race pace and tyre management has been strong and he is one of the best drivers on the grid to get the most out of the Pirelli rubber. He won his maiden Grand Prix in Sakhir last year, going from the back of the field after getting caught out in a first lap incident involving himself, Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, before he overtook cars one by one and made the most of Mercedes’ blunders with Bottas and George Russell. At one point, it appeared Perez’s F1 career might be coming to an end as he was left without a contract for 2021 when Vettel unexpectedly took his seat at the rebranded Aston Martin squad. But, Perez now has a great opportunity to add to his 10 podiums and help Red Bull to a world title.
Verstappen will still lead the way for Red Bull and is eager to be the driver to dethrone Lewis Hamilton. It’s somewhat surprising to think that 2021 is Verstappen’s seventh Formula 1 campaign and he is the driver that Mercedes and Hamilton fear the most. Last year proved that Verstappen has matured and has the skillset to take the fight to Hamilton. The Dutchman is ready for a season-long duel and the team are highly motivated too. They have thrown everything at the 2021 engine with changes to the internal combustion engine, turbine and ERS in an attempt to close the gap to Mercedes. More impressive was Honda’s reliability as Red Bull and AlphaTauri ran largely trouble-free in pre-season testing, completing over 4000km over the three days of running at the Bahrain International Circuit. There were few reliability issues for Honda in 2020 and the hope is that this will be the case this season with the added performance to power Red Bull to the top step of the podium.
Everything points to a great year for Red Bull. They could not have done much more in testing and it seems they now have the drivers and the power unit to beat Mercedes. Having started recent seasons off slowly, Red Bull could get their 2021 campaign off to a brilliant start. If Red Bull are strong in Bahrain this weekend, they can perform well at every track on the calendar as the Sakhir track has been their weakest venue having not had a podium in the turbo-hybrid era prior to last year. Red Bull’s record-breaking pitstops could be crucial if things are close between themselves and Mercedes during the race, and any mistakes will be detrimental if Red Bull want to come out on top. Ferrari have tried but ultimately failed to topple the mighty Mercedes in recent years. Red Bull might be the team to end the Mercedes reign.
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