Verstappen unsure if Red Bull have “fully fixed” RB20’s problems · RaceFans

Max Verstappen said pre-season testing has left him unsure whether Red Bull have fixed the problems they encountered with last year’s car.

Although Verstappen won two of the last four grands prix and clinched the drivers’ championship, he went 10 rounds without a victory at one stage as the team found it increasingly difficult to achieve a good handling balance with their car.

He said the new car felt “more drive-able” during pre-season testing in Bahrain two weeks ago “but Bahrain is very different to what we have here.”

“So it’s a bit difficult to say if things have been fully fixed or not. I guess we just have to be patient and see how much we can regain.”

He feels the team is in “positive shape” after the winter. “Testing isn’t many days [but] we found, already, a few areas that we can work on and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

However he does not expect Red Bull to start the season as the team to beat. “I know that we are not the quickest at the moment,” he said during today’s FIA press conference.

“But again, it’s a very long season. If you would have asked that question here last year and then at the end of the season again, it looked completely different. So a lot of things can always change quite quickly in Formula 1.”

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Verstappen took his fourth out of a record-equalling eight consecutive pole positions in this race last year. However he retired early on in the race with a braking fault.

He heads into the new season with a chance to become the second F1 driver in history to win five consecutive world championships. However he isn’t entertaining the possibility this could be a harder title to win.

“It’s actually way more relaxing to just go into it, trust the people around you, and go from there,” he said. “Work hard on and off-track, try to address things that you don’t like in a car or whatever, and always try to do the best on track yourself. Try to minimise mistakes and keep scoring points.”