Red Bull and Mercedes wage development war
The battle for the title hasn't seemed so contested since at least 2018. Red Bull and Mercedes find themselves in a handkerchief at the start of the season, which will force them to continue developing their 2021 cars throughout the season, despite the important reform of 2022.
Is the development of 2022 delayed?
A victory for Mercedes at the Bahrain Grand Prix, a victory for Red Bull last weekend at Imola, now it’s all square, we reset the counters and focus on developing the car’s performance for the next Grand Prix. This is a scenario we are likely to see often this season given the minimal gap between the two teams.
Nevertheless, Formula 1 will experience a revolution in 2022, forcing teams to prepare for it as early as this year. Consequently, teams must allocate as many resources as possible to develop the brand new 2022 project. There will soon be a moment when they must decide when to abandon the 2021 project. For example, we know that Haas did not use its development tokens in the pre-season in order to already focus on the new challenge awaiting them in 2022. This weekend in Imola, we saw the final version of the VF-21 settings, with the American team indicating a month earlier that they would stop their development at Imola to focus on 2022.
However, if the title fight between Mercedes and Red Bull remains very close, both teams will have no choice but to continue developing their 2021 cars. Helmut Marko, the head of the Red Bull team, believes that if the results stay as close, both Red Bull and Mercedes will continue their development this year, beyond the ideal moment to stop and start the development of 2022.
Red Bull has not won the constructor’s championship since 2013, allowing Mercedes to dominate and win 7 consecutive constructor’s titles, a record. It had been a long time since Red Bull had shown enough to truly compete with the Germans. It is clear that Red Bull must use all means at their disposal to win the title. This is why Helmut Marko is excited about the enthusiasm generated by his team’s good form.
« We need this euphoria »
He declared to the ServusTV channel, owned by Red Bull: “We need this euphoria, but also the passion and enthusiasm. There are 19 races left to compete [21 according to the current schedule], and we have to give it our all. The issue will arise before the summer break when, theoretically, resources will be focused on developing the new 2022 car.”
« The only thing is this: if we continue to be as close to each other, I believe that neither Mercedes nor us – and definitely not us – will step back anywhere in terms of development.
In a nutshell
This year, the gap between Red Bull’s RB16B and Mercedes’ W12 appears to be very small. The German team’s car seems to have an advantage in tire management during the race, while the Austrian car seems to be faster and more performant on a single lap. Therefore, for Helmut Marko, Mercedes has the advantage in terms of race pace, although the cooler conditions at Imola have slightly influenced things.
Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull, believes that it will take at least two more races to have a true reflection of the team that has the advantage in Formula 1 this year. The former British race car driver is satisfied with his team’s performance and hopes to have the weapons to compete with the giant Mercedes this year.
« I think we have now had a sample of two races, and I have always said that it would take about four races to see a true reflection of the competitive positions of each team,” he said.
« We are starting to see a pattern that is very, very tight between the cars, and Lewis and Max. And at the moment, it’s marginal gains here and there.
« We see that they have very good autonomy and good degradation. But it is certain that the Imola weekend confirms the pace we had during the tests and the race in Bahrain. »
« And I selfishly hope for us, but also I think for Formula 1, that they demand a great rivalry between these two drivers. The sport will benefit from it.
« We are beginning to see a very tight pattern among cars »
After the first two Grand Prix races of the season, we are witnessing a fierce battle between these two teams, each with a crucial goal for the end of the season. For Red Bull, it is about returning to victory in the constructors’ championship and even for the driver in the person of Max Verstappen. Whereas for Mercedes, it is about increasing their hegemony by adding an eighth consecutive year as constructors’ champions, but also delivering the eighth driver’s championship title to Lewis Hamilton to further establish his legacy, becoming the sole holder of eight driver’s world championships.
