What Red Bull must do to beat Mercedes
“WE HAVE BEEN THE MOST CONSISTENT CHALLENGER OVER THE PAST SEVEN YEARS. WE’VE MANAGED TO WIN RACES IN SIX OF THOSE YEARS. AND IT’S IMPORTANT FOR US TO KEEP TRYING TO BE BETTER IN EVERY AREA.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER knows his stats. In the years since Mercedes ascended to Formula 1 domination in 2014 and a two-tier championship was unofficially amalgamated, his squad has been able to take victories from the Silver/Black Arrows in every year bar 2015. In constructors’ championship placings, however, Ferrari has the second-best record, with four runner-up spots to Red Bull’s three. Then the Italian team’s hard fall from the front last year meant the teams vying for victories was down to two.
Off-season noises emerging from Ferrari suggest the team is confident of producing a new engine that will at least make up for some of its unexpected 2020 power deficiency. But, as that is far from guaranteed, F1 heads into 2021 with Red Bull again expected to be Mercedes’ biggest threat.
But it’s been here before. Last year, stable technical rules from 2019 were expected to close up the field, with Red Bull aiming to banish the slow start it made two years ago while grappling with the front-wing changes. Then, although the pandemic delayed the start of the 2020 season until the summer, the result was Mercedes’ W11 re-establishing the team’s gap over the pack to its largest extent since the early years of the turbo-hybrid era. Red Bull was ultimately undone by a car that had an inherent aerodynamic imbalance, which meant the RB16 was very tricky to drive. The team got to work in addressing its issues early in the delayed campaign, but only Max Verstappen was able to get among the Mercedes drivers, even as Red Bull eroded the gap to the front with several development steps.
This progress culminated in Verstappen’s victory from pole in the 2020 season finale. Although Mercedes clearly
