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Max Verstappen believes his feedback was critical in addressing the rear-end grip issues which had plagued Red Bull Racing during the 2020 campaign. The 2021 F1 champion explained how his team worked on developing the rear end of the car, which helped generate optimal grip and performance.
Speaking to David Coulthard in a CarNext interview, Max Verstappen said:
“I think, in general, what had been our weakness is the rear, specially the year before [when] we were just really nervous on the rear. So that was naturally our focus to try and make that a lot better, and throughout the year, we tried to work on that to find more rear grip.”
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The Dutchman's Red Bull Racing RB16, his 2021 F1 challenger, often had the best balance but came up short when it came to rear-end grip. Given his status as the team's No. 1 driver, Max Verstappen helped his team further develop the overall package.
Max Verstappen believes it was hard to anticipate Mercedes’ performance from their pre-season struggles
In pre-season testing, Mercedes struggled with the rear balance of their car due to the shortened wheelbase, a regulation introduced by the FIA for the 2021 season. However, rumors of their struggles did not guarantee any performance drop, according to Max Verstappen.
Comparing Mercedes' pre-season form to that of Red Bull, Max Verstappen said:
“In pre-season, it is always hard, especially [given] how dominant they [Mercedes] were the year before. Even if they had a bad balance, they had so much margin, that even with the bad balance, they would still be ahead. But then we had a good balance. We were quite happy with the package we had and that definitely showed in the first race weekend.”
Given Mercedes' past domination, the Dutchman found it difficult to anticipate how their overall package would perform throughout the season. However, he maintained a focus on his own car and its overall package.
Although Mercedes did improve their car significantly towards the end of the 2021 season, Red Bull's overall consistency helped them deliver consistently competitive performances for the majority of the season.
