Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that he is confident his team can out-develop Ferrari as they did last season and overtake them in terms of pace, issuing the team should not be worried about its current pace.
The energy drinks outfit were left clearly behind Mercedes and Ferrari in the season opener in Australia, as Max Verstappen finished fifth and Daniel Ricciardo failed to take the chequered flag.
A similar scenario unfolded in 2016, however, Red Bull pegged Ferrari back as the season wore on picking up two wins along the way. Horner thinks they can repeat the same method as they did last year.
"Sometimes it's the smaller things that can have a big impact," Horner told Sky Sports. "We weren't in a good operating window in Melbourne. I was actually looking at the pace analysis from last year, and at this race [China] last year we were exactly the same amount behind Ferrari and Mercedes.
"Ferrari were right on the pace [in China] with Mercedes last year, and we were able to out-develop them during the course of the year. I'm confident with everything coming in the pipeline we've got the basis of a very good car here that will evolve and evolve through the year."
Fergal Walsh
Replies (5)
Login to replyWolfgang
Posts: 313
hm. i don´t think so. i always thought Ferrari developed for 2017 much earlier on in 2016 and stopped therefore the development of the 2016 Ferrari plus the fact Seb had a lot of bad luck in 2016. Ferrari wasn´t that bad as the results from 2016 might tell.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Agreed, Red Bull certainly benefitted from Ferrari's retirements and such last season.
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
With such a big regulation change, is it really as simple as that? Doing little bits at a time like in 2016?
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Thats basically what you do on the chassis side of things.
Vet5
Posts: 225
Ferrari will have upgrades planned through-out the year just like most teams. RedBull might take upgrades that wont work on the car like what williams had last year