Max Verstappen isn’t concerned by the radical Mercedes upgrade introduced at the Bahrain test on Thursday.
The W13 captured the attention of the Formula 1 paddock for its new ‘zeropod’ design which features the smallest sidepods seen on a car since the 1990s.
Soon after they were unveiled, Red Bull boss Christian Horner was quoted by respected German publication Auto Motor und Sport as questioning the legality of the Mercedes, adding the ‘zeropod’ concept was not in the spirit of the regulations.
The team later tried to walk back those comments indicating they were not “official”, while Verstappen brushed off any fears their main rivals from last year had found a potential silver bullet.
“No, I’m not concerned. We can only focus on ourselves,” said the reigning world champion.
“I said this so many times last year and we have to do it again this year, even if the cars look a bit different.
“There are so many unknown things, what we need to learn about, so I’m not worried at all.”
That being said, the Dutchman did take a cheeky dig at the looks of the updated Mercedes.
“I don’t know if the W13 is legal – but it’s quite ugly, isn’t it?” he told NOS. “It doesn’t look good, even the colour!”
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Verstappen is behind the wheel of his Red Bull RB18 all day on Friday, and ahead of heading out on track in Bahrain, he laid out his target.
“Laps, to understand the car more,” he said.
“I think that’s the main priority, just trying to understand what you need from the car, try different things on the car in terms of set-up, also for other tracks, if you have issues, what kind of direction you need to go into. It’s all about that really.”