Verstappen issues ominous warning to F1 rivals

Max Verstappen has praised Red Bull for making "enormous progress" with the effectiveness of developments in recent years.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit has made a number of changes to its design philosophy with the RB20 despite dominating F1 last term, winning all races bar one.

Yet despite the changes, the new machinery has been near the top of the timesheets across the duration of the pre-season test in Bahrain - only Ferrari able to keep Verstappen and Sergio Perez off the top.

The Red Bull has taken inspiration from the concept abandoned by Mercedes last season and addressing the changes, Verstappen told Dutch media including RacingNews365: "I just trust what the people in our team are doing. They are confident that this is better than anything else they have tested in the winter."

'We have not been conservative'

On the ability to hit the ground running with new components, the Dutchman added: "I think that is something that we have of course made enormous progress on in recent years. Everything that comes to the car in the winter also works well. In the end, it doesn't matter how the car looks like.

"What I like about the team is of course that they have not been conservative. I think they have really pushed the limits in terms of changing the concept. I think they just saw more potential in this car as a platform for new developments compared to what we had."