Red Bull senior advisor Dr Helmut Marko has insisted that there is nothing “mysterious” about their 2021 car.
Red Bull’s 2021 challenger, the RB16B, was unveiled on Tuesday – but the fact the team has only released a handful of photos raised speculation that it was trying to hide some aspects of the car to prevent its rivals from copying it over the coming weeks and months.
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However, Dr Marko has dismissed this speculation and said the reason for the lack of pictures and videos of the RB16B is simply down to them working on an ultra-tight schedule.
“Time was a bit tight to do photoshoots. Driving was more important to us than taking photos,” the Austrian told F1-Insider.com.
“We have nothing mysterious on the car. No six wheels, no fan in the rear either.
“The car is a consistent further development of last year’s model. The goal is to be able to compete for victories right from the start.
“At the first tests in Bahrain we will run all the parts on the car that will also be used at the season debut.
“We know fuel quantities and engine settings are played with during the tests. Therefore, the true potential will only be seen at the first race,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen said he is wary of not creating too much “hype” about their 2021 car without first seeing how it stacks up against the competition, especially the Mercedes W12.
“I am always very realistic and it makes no sense to talk about stuff now,” Verstappen said.
“We have to go to Bahrain and look at it there. In the first race we will know if we succeeded or not.
“I don’t like to talk it up at the moment. We know where we want to be and where we want to get to and that’s what we have to realise.
“It’s all looking promising but it doesn’t make sense now to hype everything up. First, it’s more important to get to the track in Bahrain and try to do the best amount of learning we can on the car and the engine to optimise everything,” the Dutch ace added.
Red Bull will be hoping that the RB16B is strong enough to give Mercedes a run for their money from the get-go.
They will also be looking to challenge the Silver Arrows more closely in the Constructors’ Championship as a result of them running Sergio Perez in the second car.
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