Christian Horner, the team boss Redbull, is very hopeful that the team can close the gap with Mercedes despite the stable regulations put across by the FIA in the concorde agreement.
The major regulations change was put to a hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but will be taking effect in 2022 hopefully if everything goes back to normal. There’s an overview that the pecking order at the Formula 1 grid might remain the same in 2021, if much won’t have changed meaning that Mercedes will remain at the top as the quickest, with Redbull taking the second position but way off behind Mercedes.
Horner has some hope that this won’t be the case, and believes that his team will develop the RB16 properly enough to close the gap with Mercedes.
“There is a carryover of parts but that doesn’t mean to say if we can unlock more potential in the car and develop the car effectively then, of course, I think we can close that gap,” the team principal, Horner said.
“This car is the basis of next year’s car. There is probably 60% of the car that is carried over so obviously, we are working very hard to understand and unlock further performance from the car between now and the end of the year. There are now three months left of hard development and the whole team is very focused on that.”
Looking back at the pace of the F1 cars, Racing Point has been very close to Redbull this season as they often had a quicker car on the track. Sebastian Vettel will be joining the team as it will be rebranded Aston Martin in 2021, as the regulations will be allowing them to use this year’s Mercedes parts token free. This will make the outfit even stronger.
Christian Horner agrees that with Vettel joining Racing Point, he could have a positive impact on the team. However, he continues to stress that the team’s main objective is ahead of them rather than behind.
“I think they have a car that is very competitive,” he added.
“The basis for their car for next year – the rules should have further clarifications in terms of what is and isn’t permitted, but [it is] a team with high aspirations and good budget behind them now and a potentially rejuvenated Sebastian in that car could be a factor.
“We have got to focus on ourselves. The gap we measure ourselves to is Mercedes and that is what we have to work hard to reduce and ultimately get ahead of.”
