Max Verstappen hopes an improved car and the arrival of Sergio Perez can see Red Bull "pressure" Mercedes at every race this season.
The Anglo-Austrian team head into the new campaign keen to continue the momentum from the end of last year, when Verstappen became the first non-Mercedes driver to win the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2013.
And so far, the early signs are positive after the Dutchman finished pre-season testing quickest while Mercedes appeared to struggle with both reliability and handling issues.
“I think so," Verstappen said on if the RB16B was a step up last year's car via Crash.net on Thursday.
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"Everything went quite smooth so that's of course always what you want in a test, and especially when it's so little amount of time, you always hope that it's going to run like that. So we were definitely very pleased for that
“Different kind of circumstances, different tyres, the car is different because of the new regulations with the aero and the floor.
"But I think what was the most important thing to feel was that the car is quite predictable, even with the changes in the wind direction and temperature so that felt good.”
While Red Bull rarely had the outright pace to challenge Mercedes last year, Verstappen's plight wasn't helped by being largely alone in taking on Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton as teammate Alex Albon struggled.
For 2021, the Thai has been replaced by Perez, who was ousted by Racing Point in favour of Sebastian Vettel, and Max is confident the Mexican will offer a stronger partner to take on the black Silver Arrows.
“First of all, I think the team of course needs to be happy in the first place," he said on if he was "happy" with Perez at Red Bull.
“I know Checo now for many years here in the paddock, and now that we are teammates, you get a bit more of an insight into how Checo is working and I think everything so far is running very smooth.
“The feedback, we both are heading in the same direction, I hope it’s the right direction. It’s all going very smooth and it’s nice also to get a bit more of an insight from his side, from his past experiences in other teams. That’s always very good.
“I just hope that as a team now we can really score a good amount of points and really put the pressure on Mercedes every single race weekend.”
Since testing, both teams have been passing the tag of favourites like a hot potato, but Verstappen isn't interested in joining the games.
"It doesn't matter,” he said. “What matters is that you perform on track when it counts and when you can score the points.
“I think you just have to focus on your job and just stay calm, stay focused, because it just distracts you, and like I said, it's just important to focus on the job.”
As for Perez, he admits he may need a little time to get fully settled at Red Bull, but he's optimistic based on early impressions.
“I don’t think I’ve driven enough the car, but certainly I would put it up there,” he replied when asked the RB16B is the best F1 car he’s driven.
“I think it has really, really good potential. I mean it’s all relative to the others for how competitive. It seems to be that it is the most competitive car I’ve I’ve driven so far. But we’ll see in the coming days.”
