F1 News
Verstappen: "Terrible following other cars" with 2020 challengers
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
Although he's a big fan of his 2020 challenger in general, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen has revealed it's "terrible following other cars" in his RB16, stating the loss of downforce is even worse than previously.
Currently, cars can lose up to 50% of their downforce when closely following a different car, making it very difficult to chase a rival through a technical section and making overtaking too reliant on DRS zones.
The new regulations for 2021 are set to address this issue in a major way as the concept of the cars should produce significantly less 'dirty air', but it's a problem the likes of Verstappen will still have to deal with for the upcoming campaign.
"The new cars really are fantastic to drive," the 22-year-old told Nu.nl before getting into the problem of following cars. "Track records will be broken in the upcoming season.
"It's just terrible following other cars. You lose so much downforce behind another car. The cars become quicker each year so it becomes worse each year as well."
Speaking more about the RB16, the contender many people think is the only one capable of challenging Mercedes, Verstappen was happy from the moment he got in for the first time on Wednesday.
"The car feels better connected to the road. That was the goal after all. It feels much more stable. We tried some things already last year to work towards this. I jumped in the car and it was how we wanted it straight away."
Only Lewis Hamilton completed more laps than Verstappen in the first week, with the eight-time Grand Prix winner rounding the Circuit de Catalunya 254 times.
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