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Sergio Perez says he feels the potential in Red Bull’s 2021 Formula 1 car after its shakedown at Silverstone, where Max Verstappen sought a “basic understanding” of the new RB16B.
Perez drove the RB16B first, while Verstappen was behind the wheel of the RB15 in the morning then took over the 2021 car in the afternoon.
Red Bull says the team completed its running – capped at 100km under FIA rules governing filming days with contemporary cars – but images of the RB16B have not been released.
It means the only public photographs of the new car, which has an all-new Honda engine for 2021, are the two digital renders published on Tuesday morning.
While the real car remains concealed for now, both drivers and team boss Christian Horner talked about the RB16B’s run, with Perez – who drove a Red Bull for the first time in a two-day RB15 test earlier this week – stating he could already “feel a step in overall grip at all speeds”.
“Driving the new car that we’re gonna drive this season it’s always a very special moment for all the team,” he said.
“They’ve been working so hard through the winter so to finally go on track with that car is quite an emotional day.
“I have to say that I can see the potential of it.
“I was extremely pleased to come from RB15, already have a reference of how a Red Bull car feels, and jumping into my car, the car that I’m gonna be driving this year, it’s incredible.
“Conditions are not great out there but it’s just nice to get a comfortable feeling with the pedals, with the brakes, with all the new stuff that I’m going through.
“I haven’t done a lot but I can already see that the car has good potential.”
The 2021 cars will likely start the season with slightly less downforce than their predecessors because of a quartet of aerodynamic rule changes to reduce performance at the rear of the car.
Verstappen suggested he had noticed that already in his first laps in the RB16B.
“Of course there are differences,” he said. “I mean, the big change of course is the floor, they cut it a lot on the rear.
“So, the car is always going to behave a bit differently.
“But it’s not about set-up work or whatever, it’s just about getting comfortable with the car, get a basic understanding of the car.
“Then all the work has to be done anyway in Bahrain.
“It’s going to be quite short, one and a half days each for the drivers. But I like it, I thought six days was a lot and it was pretty boring because there’s no real excitement.
“I love driving Formula 1 cars but there’s not a competition feeling yet.
“Of course I hope that those one and a half days I have are going to be run smoothly with not too many issues, that’s the most important thing. But I think it’s going to be fine.”
Red Bull has not indicated what it has spent its development tokens on. There has been some speculation it has committed to a major rear suspension change that could have required the use of those tokens.
One element that can be ruled out is the monocoque, with team boss Christian Horner saying it is the same chassis used at the end of last year.
“It is very much a carry-over,” Horner said of the 2021 car.
“Of course, all the peripheral bits get revisited and changed so it’s an update, an extensive update, I would say, hence the name 16B rather than being an all-new car.
“There are systems checks, it’s a new engine from Honda on their side as well, so that’s where the main focus is.
“You get some initial feeling but it’s difficult in these conditions, this temperature. You’ll get something from it, he [Verstappen] will have a reference point from when he last drove the car.
“Even though it’s a filming day it’s great for the drivers to be able to jump into what was the old car from a couple years ago and reference that against RB16B.
“It blows away their cobwebs and also gives them a brief experience of their car for the season.”
