Max Verstappen believes Crimson Bull’s 2025 F1 automobile represents a step ahead.
Crimson Bull had been hampered by poor mid-season improvement and stability points with their RB20 however regardless of slipping to 3rd place within the constructors’ championship, Verstappen was nonetheless in a position to clinch a fourth successive drivers’ title.
Having pushed the RB21 throughout the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, Verstappen is assured Crimson Bull’s newest F1 challenger is an enchancment on its predecessor.
“It may possibly’t be worse than final yr. So I feel the route that we’re working into is nice,” Verstappen mentioned on day two of the check.
“We simply have to observe that and see how a lot we are able to extract. In the meanwhile, it’s actually early days – lots of issues we’re nonetheless discussing and wanting to enhance.
“However yesterday I loved it and that’s already an enormous distinction to final yr.”
The Dutchman, who was not concerned on Thursday as Crimson Bull teammate Liam Lawson obtained a full day of working, added: “For myself and the group, in some unspecified time in the future final yr we knew one thing was up.
“In fact a number of issues should be addressed and that’s why fairly a number of issues have modified. So I give my suggestions on what I would like – the automobile must go sooner and that’s what we attempt to apply.
“I feel the group discovered quite a bit from final yr. We tried to unravel these issues and now we have now to see how the automobile performs in Australia, which is one other utterly totally different circuit [to Bahrain].”
Have Crimson Bull addressed earlier issues?
Crimson Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko claimed on Wednesday that the group have discovered options to the issues which dogged the RB20.
“The automobile is extra predictable and reacts to the adjustments within the regular method,” he mentioned on day one. “So, all the issues we had final yr, I imagine they’re much higher, or possibly they’re additionally sorted.
“Max says the automobile is extra complicated and is extra put collectively, and no matter they do on adjustments, the automobile is reacting in the proper method. On his quickest lap, he had a bit of drawback, so it may have been [quicker]. However anyway, we are saying that lengthy runs had been actually spectacular and our tyre put on was excellent.
“The automobile has the broader vary and is extra predictable for the drivers.”
Talking to F1TV on day two, Crimson Bull group principal Christian Horner appeared to verify that the problems with their 2024 automobile have now been fastened.
“In the meanwhile, the information ties in with our simulations,” Horner defined. “We’ve got understood among the limitations of RB20 and the group have labored onerous to attempt to deal with these.
|Final yr, we had a automobile that every so often was very fast, profitable races and sprints and getting extra pole positions than anybody else, nevertheless it was very delicate and to extract efficiency was tough.
“Each drivers are actually reporting that it’s simpler to drive.”
