After sweeping the first race of the season with a 25-second lead over the next car, Verstappen says this year shouldn't be easy for him. Another thing is that you think about it too. Red Bull is a tire-less beast, and allowed Max and Chico to do two 'laps' on the soft rubber in Bahrain and one on the hard rubber; While the rest had to choose the opposite. Given the dominance, there are only two details in which a slight weakness can be seen in the RB20: that Leclerc set the fastest lap in qualifying (in Q2) and that In low degradation circuits, its advantage will be reduced.
Verstappen himself admits that Saturday in Sakhir “was better than expected.” “The wind changed and everything got better, the feeling was better and I could take care of my tyres. I didn't expect the advantage to be half a second, it's more than I expected. In the tests I felt very comfortable with the car and this time it was the same. As a team, it's great. But in general, other teams are closer, that's what I think. I think everything went very well in Bahrain, but I don't expect it to be like this in every race. “We will analyze it and try to improve.”
For the three-time champion, the track had a lot to do with it: “Other teams extract a little bit more than us out of one lap, for whatever reason, and Charles set the fastest lap of Q2. We will look at it in the next races.” He believes the scenario will be different in urban areas such as the Jeddah Corniche: “There are very different scenarios and this track is very special, probably one of the best tracks for us. I'm focusing on what we have to improve from this race. “In Jeddah, which is a completely different track, high-speed corners, very different asphalt, I don’t expect it to be easy.”
About the characteristics of RB20 and similarities with RB19: “The sensations are very similar, but a little better. This is what we wanted. Last year's car was very good. With some small improvements in low-speed cornering. When I got into it, it didn't feel like a completely different car, which is a positive thing. For me, the question was whether this would work, more for me than for the team, but the simulations and the wind tunnel showed it.
“Changing the concept was a risk.”
Pérez started from fifth and finished second, although he had little advantage over Sainz. “I knew I had to control the tire because it forced us to stop early and made us stop very early. In fact, I knew it was going to be a long adventure and I had to control a steady lead. It worked. The Mexican commented: “We had some problems with the car towards the end of the race “And the deterioration was getting worse.” “It was a very good surprise, we expected the people around us to be stronger. As Max says, this is probably the worst place for deterioration, so other places will be closer. He points out that Jeddah will be a different challenge. Regarding the RB20: “It was a risk to change the concept, but the car is very similar in terms of balance compared to last year. Better. We will learn a lot in the first tracks and I hope we can maintain the progress.”
“Analyst. Web buff. Wannabe beer trailblazer. Certified music expert. Zombie lover. Explorer. Pop culture fanatic.”