Charging Red Bull RB16B

This is the new Red Bull Racing RB16B from the Milton Keynes-based squad.

The RB16B is an evolution of the last season’s RB16, with team boss Christian Horner explaining at the end of last year that there would be a carryover of around 60 percent of the 2021 challenger.

The team hopes, however, that the lessons it learned from last season, when drivers Max Verstappen and Alex Albon struggled at times with a tricky balance, have been taken on board and it can prove to be stronger against Mercedes. It has targeted making the RB16B more consistent across different types of tracks.

Red Bull Racing’s hopes of being able to fight harder against Mercedes will also rest on the work that engine supplier Honda has done with its new Formula 1 engine, ahead of the Japanese manufacturer’s last season in the sport.

Horner said that Red Bull was well aware of where it needed to improve, and that progress on both the chassis and engine front would prove beneficial.

“I wouldn’t say the [problems] were exclusive to aero,” Horner said about the difficulties of last year. “These things always work in tandem. But I think that we made good progress through 2020 and we’ll see whether RB16B has its challenges from the regulation changes, but that’s obviously the same for all teams.

“Hopefully, with a lot of good lessons that we learned last year, we’ll manage to apply those into the updated car.”

Red Bull is heading in to 2021 with a new driver line-up, after Albon was demoted to the role of reserve and test driver at the end of last season.

That came with Red Bull electing to sign Sergio Perez as Verstappen’s teammate, off the back of an impressive campaign that the Mexican delivered for Racing Point in 2020.

Red Bull thinks that the addition of Perez will be vital if it is to disrupt Mercedes and prevent the German car manufacturer from taking an eighth consecutive Formula 1 title double.

Honda’s final season in Formula 1 this year will be followed by Red Bull taking over the engine project itself and running the power units from 2022 under its own name.

Work is already underway at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes campus to ramp up its powertrain facilities in readiness for the new challenge.

5 thoughts to “Charging Red Bull RB16B”

  1. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is raring to go for the 2021 Formula 1 season after shaking down the RB16B last week, and the Dutchman says a truncated three-day pre-season testing schedule in Bahrain is a welcome change.

    Verstappen and his new team mate Sergio Perez wrapped up a filming day at Silverstone last week that, as per the rules, allowed them to complete a maximum of 100 kilometres in the new car. They will have to wait until pre-season testing to get a full feeling of their new RB16B challenger, but testing has been cut from six to three days – split between both drivers – this year.

    But the Dutchman was unfazed by the reduction in running, as he said: “I always look forward to race weekends, but first we have three days of testing.

    “It’s one-and-a-half days per team mate. It’s not a lot, but I don’t mind. I thought six days was a bit much and a bit boring.”

    The winner of last year’s season finale added that he had just one objective when testing rolls around on March 12 at Bahrain International Circuit – where the 2021 season opener will also be held.

    “Of course I love to drive a Formula 1 car, but there isn’t really a competitive element during testing. I hope my day and a half goes smoothly. That’s important,” he explained.

    “We want to clock as many miles as possible to get to used to the car. That’s the way to prepare for the first Grand Prix weekend.”

    “We will have to wait until Bahrain where we can drive on racing rubber. That is where things really start. Then we can start to get the set-up right,” concluded Verstappen.

    Red Bull are hoping to take the title fight to reigning champions Mercedes this year, with Honda hoping to bow out of F1 in style as they bring an updated and highly-rated power unit to the RB16B, in their last year as an official supplier to the team.

    Source: Formula1.com

  2. Sergio Perez looking to give Mercedes ‘a hard time’ in 2021 after first Red Bull test. Formula1.com has the news story.

    New Red Bull signing Sergio Perez says that he’s hopeful that he and team mate Max Verstappen can combine to give Mercedes “a hard time” in 2021, following his first outing in the team’s RB16B challenger at Silverstone.

    2021 marks the first time since 2018 that Red Bull will start the season with a line-up of drivers with more than 30 Grand Prix starts each, following difficult stints at the squad for both Pierre Gasly in 2019 – the Frenchman now back at AlphaTauri for 2021 – and Alex Albon in 2019 and 2020, with the Thai driver now Red Bull’s development driver, as well as reserve for both the team and AlphaTauri.

    But with Perez – a veteran of 191 Grand Prix starts, and with one victory to his name – having driven the 2021 Red Bull RB16B in a shakedown test at Silverstone earlier this week, the Mexican was clear about his targets for the season ahead.

    “I think the goal is to win,” he said. “There’s obviously a process to this. We have to get on top and hopefully the car is good enough for that, but we have to wait and see. Mercedes have had a good advantage over the team in the last few years, so hopefully this season we’re able to close the gap and give them a hard time.

    “Max is a great talent and I can’t really wait to start working together with him,” Perez added of his new team mate. “You can see that he’s so natural in his talent and technically he’s very strong as well, so we’re just looking forward to getting the car up there and to start fighting to get as many points as possible for the team.”

    Verstappen spent much of 2020 fighting solo with the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, as team mate Albon struggled to consistently get on the pace of the Dutchman – a factor which limited Red Bull’s ability to exert any sort of strategical advantage over Mercedes, and left Red Bull 254 points shy of the Silver Arrows’ total in the constructors’ fight.

    But with Verstappen now partnered with a more experienced driver than either of his two previous team mates, he too was hopeful that Perez’s proven points-scoring ability would allow Red Bull to launch a serious title bid against Mercedes this season.

    “Sergio’s been in F1 now a while,” said Verstappen, speaking after his own run in the RB16B, “so I think he’s proven that he’s a good points scorer, and I hope that as a team, we can make it difficult for Mercedes, especially, because I think they still are the favourites. So I just hope as a team, and together with Sergio, we can score a lot of points.”

    Verstappen and Perez will next be out on track at the Bahrain International Circuit on March 12-14, as pre-season testing commences ahead of the 2021 season opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 28.

  3. Sergio Perez: Red Bull on ‘need’ for new signing to impress in 2021 as they bid to challenge Mercedes.

    Can Sergio Perez push Max Verstappen, and push Red Bull forward in Formula 1 2021? Christian Horner and Perez speak to Sky Sports in exclusive interviews after Red Bull launch new car.

    Red Bull boss Christian Horner says the team “need both drivers firing on all cylinders” if they are to challenge Mercedes in 2021, hoping new signing Sergio Perez hits the ground running to make it a four-way fight at the front of F1.

    While Red Bull were undoubtedly outshone by Mercedes with their respective 2020 cars, they were also missing a consistent second driver next to star Max Verstappen – who too often found himself battling the sport’s dominant world champions on his own.

    Coupled with optimism about their 2021 challenger – the newly-launched RB16B – the arrival of Perez, who has been dependable, and increasingly fast, in recent seasons, has given Red Bull fresh hope for a challenge.

    “Sergio, he’s got so much experience now after 10 years in Formula 1,” team boss Horner told Sky Sports’ Craig Slater in an exclusive interview.

    “I’ve known Sergio a long time and he has always had this trait of being very gentle on the tyres and very strong in race conditions. I think that brings another dynamic for us, strategically it will hopefully bring more options for us as well.

    “He has impressed the whole team with attitude and approach so far.”

    Horner added: “Max is a tough customer up there but we want both drivers up there, we need both drivers up there.

    “To have any chance at all of closing that gap and putting pressure on Mercedes, we need both drivers firing on all cylinders.”

    Perez has replaced Alex Albon at Red Bull, with the Mexican handed another chance at one of F1’s renowned top teams eight years after his solo campaign at McLaren.

    And he is relishing fighting against Verstappen, as well as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

    “It is just a step up above everything I’ve been to,” explained Perez, 31. “My previous teams have been very successful, but Red Bull – the ambition is very simple, it’s just to win.

    “I’ve been very impressed with the team, with the car, with the level of engineering. The level of excitement is very, very different here.

    “It will be great just to race with similar equipment. To race with them throughout the season and I look forward to fighting for the title this year.”

    On Verstappen, Perez continued: “I think he is definitely up there with the best. He’s the fastest at the moment, or very close to the fastest. Everyone knows the quality of Max, so I think it’s a good challenge.

    “The target is to win, the same target as Max. But the main target is to bring Red Bull back to winning and hopefully we can make that happen.”

    Source: SkySportsF1

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