Red Bull has won races in six of the seven seasons since Mercedes replaced it as F1’s benchmark team at the start of the turbo hybrid era, but since Ricciardo left to join Renault at the end of 2018, only Verstappen has continued to take victories.

In the two seasons since Ricciardo’s departure, Alex Albon’s pair of podiums represent the only times Red Bull’s other driver has managed to finish in the top three out of 38 races in that span, with both Albon and predecessor Pierre Gasly enduring a significant pace gap to Verstappen during their respective brief time as his teammate.

Perez, a 10-season F1 veteran and race winner following his 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix triumph, has been brought on board to try and ensure Red Bull has two cars regularly threatening or beating the Mercedes drivers in 2021.

Red Bull has lost results in the last two seasons when Mercedes was able to successfully use the strategic advantage of two cars fighting one rival.

Horner acknowledges that Perez will have a tough time matching Verstappen immediately in 2021 thanks to the limited pre-season testing time available this year (three days), but has revealed his expectations of Red Bull’s new line-up – which features a driver not promoted from its junior programme for the first time since 2007.

“It’ll be very difficult to get himself up to speed in just one test, straightaway,” Horner said in an exclusive interview for this week’s Autosport magazine.

“But he has the benefit of a lot of experience and, of course, we are expecting him to be close to Max and challenging – in a way that we had with Daniel Ricardo and Max for three seasons.

“So, hopefully, Sergio can play a real, really important role for the team in getting both cars, on a consistent basis, near to the Mercedes.”

When asked how he thought Verstappen was progressing after nearly five full years racing for Red Bull since his shock promotion ahead of the 2016 Spanish GP, Horner said: “I think Max has done a great job.

“I think he’s matured enormously over the last few years. And I think what he’s extracted from the car in the last couple years has been truly impressive.

“In a car that hasn’t been as good as the Mercedes [and] to have won five races in the last two years with Honda power [as well], I think he’s done a fantastic job.

“And we just as a team need to be able to do that on a more consistent basis over the course of a 23-race season.”

The full interview with Christian Horner is included in this week’s issue of Autosport magazine, which is available in shops and online.

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Following the rebranding of the Racing Point squad under the Aston Martin name over the winter, the team has now revealed details of its launch plans at the start of next month.

The Aston Martin squad will hold a virtual launch from 3pm GMT on 3 March, and has invited fans to be part of the event by registering to ‘Unlock The Vault’ for the new car through its website.

2021 will mark the first time a car has raced under the Aston Martin name in F1 since the British manufacturer last entered a works effort in 1960.

The deal was brought about following Racing Point owner Lawrence Stroll’s investment into Aston Martin in January 2020, paving the way for the F1 squad to undergo a rebranding.

The launch event will also mark a first public appearance for four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel with the team following his winter switch from Ferrari. Vettel has already been present at the team’s Silverstone factory to undergo a seat fitting and to get to know his new teammates.

Vettel will partner Lance Stroll in 2021, with the young Canadian looking to build on his best F1 season to date last year that saw him score his first F1 pole position and two podium finishes.

The team is set to undergo a significant rebranding, moving away from the bright pink colours the Racing Point squad was known for and adopting the classic British racing green that is synonymous with Aston Martin.

Aston Martin has also welcomed a new title sponsor, Cognizant, ahead of the 2021 season, acting as another big change under the rebranding.

It leaves only Red Bull and Haas as teams yet to confirm plans to unveil their new cars ahead of the new season, with the rest of the grid having set their unveilings.

The unveiling from Aston Martin will come the day after both Mercedes and Alpine present their 2021 challengers, and is nine days before the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Vettel and Stroll will give the new Aston Martin F1 car its first extended run out in this test running from 12-14 March, two weeks before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on 28 March.

2021 F1 car launches

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Norris announced in early January that he had tested positive for COVID-19 while taking a holiday in Dubai ahead of a planned training camp, forcing him to complete a 10-day self-isolation before he could return home to the UK.

It made Norris the fourth F1 driver to contract COVID-19, following positive test results for Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, and Lewis Hamilton through the 2020 season. Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly have also since tested positive for the virus following spells in Dubai.

The impact of COVID-19 has varied from case to case. Aston Martin driver Stroll said last year that it “wasn’t an easy recovery” in the races that followed his period on the sidelines, while world champion Hamilton lost 4kg due to the virus.

Asked by Motorsport.com about how COVID-19 had impacted him over the winter, Norris was upbeat, saying it had not affected his preparations for the new season too greatly.

“I think luckily for me, COVID wasn’t too bad,” Norris said.

“It was a few days or so of initially having no taste, no smell, the normal really, and just feeling very drained and tired for a couple of weeks.

“Since then, [I’ve] basically fully recovered, everything is back to normal. I wouldn’t say that it really affected me too much, [apart from] a bit of the training.

“I wasn’t allowed outside at all, I didn’t have a window or anything. I just had to do some basic workouts in my room, no cardio or runs or cycles. But just doing what I could in my room.

“That was all. Apart from that, since then, it’s been a bit more back to normal, at my house here back in the UK, on my bike, on my treadmill, whatever, all the normal stuff, neck training and just getting back in the hang of things.

“But other than that, I’m good.”

Norris returned to the track last week when he took part in a private F3 test to help get up to speed, and will sample the new McLaren MCL35M car in the coming days during a shakedown at Silverstone.

The British driver will enter the new season looking to build on an impressive second campaign for McLaren last year that saw him help the team finish third in the constructors’ championship, as well as scoring his maiden podium finish.

Norris explained how he felt more confident going into the new season with the additional experience under his belt, having also finished last year strongly.

“I’m just that little bit more confident,” Norris said.

“I can go into the season, I can go into the winter test and the first race knowing what I really want and what I want in the car from my engineers.

“We work just that little bit more in harmony altogether, and that will bring more performance from my side and as a team.”

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The F1 Commission announced last week that teams had unanimously supported a freeze in power unit development from 2022, lasting until the introduction of the new engines in 2025.

The agreement paved the way for Red Bull to take on departing supplier Honda’s power units from next year, announcing the formation of Red Bull Powertrains on Monday.

Both Red Bull and Ferrari had entered talks eager to implement some kind of performance correction system, ensuring that any power unit that was significantly behind its rivals would get the opportunity to catch up.

It emerged following the meeting that this has not been written into the regulations surrounding the engine freeze, making it appear that the performance of the power units as of the start of 2022 would be set in stone for the next three seasons.

But Red Bull F1 boss Horner has revealed that while it was not written into the regulations, an agreement had been struck between the manufacturers to address any big gaps in performance.

“Whilst there isn’t anything within the regulations, there is an agreement between the manufacturers that each have supported to the FIA to address it, in the event that a manufacturer is out of kilter,” Horner said in a select media roundtable including Motorsport.com.

“So there is effectively an undertaking by each of the manufacturers to address it should it arise, whilst it’s not within the regulations.”

Although Horner accepted the agreement was “not as ideal as a regulation”, he expressed confidence that the FIA could work with the manufacturers to correct any performance gaps.

“It gives the FIA the necessary empowerment to bring the parties to the table,” Horner said.

“That’s important, and there is a clear understanding, particularly from within the top level of each of the OEMs.”

Honda has brought forward many of its planned developments for 2022 to 2021 before its exit from the series at the end of the year.

Horner said that the Japanese manufacturer remains committed to working on improvements throughout this year before handing the power unit over to Red Bull when the freeze begins.

“You have the introduction of the E10 fuel [in 2022], so Honda will continue to develop the engine around that fuel,” Horner said.

“They will hand over the engine effectively for the start of the freeze, and they will continue to assist during 2022 with the assembly of engines.

“Honda are continuing to operate as normal this year. They are committed to Formula 1 until the 31st of December, during which time they will be working with our fuel partner, ExxonMobil, which they’re currently doing, on the development of the E10 fuel, which is currently the biggest regulation change into next year.

“It’s business as usual very much for 2021. And then the engine will be handed over for pre-season testing this time next year.”

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The Milton Keynes-based team has agreed a deal to take on the Honda engine project for next year as part of a move that has led to the creation of Red Bull Powertrains.

While the team has in the past rebadged engines – most famously with TAG-Heuer taking the name of its Renault customer units from 2016-2018 – such a plan has been ruled out this time.

Speaking about the plans for the future name of the Honda engines, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: “It will be a Red Bull engine. So it will be, as Mercedes is a Mercedes, it will be an incorporated part of the car. So it will be a Red Bull.”

Asked if Red Bull was looking for a potential partner or manufacturer to help in its project, Horner said: “I think we won’t be beholden on having a partner, so we’ve got the independence to do it ourselves.

“If an exciting partner comes along, then of course it would make sense to look at it very seriously, whether that be an OEM or another type of partner, a battery manufacturer or whatever. It really depends what the engines are.”

Horner explained that Red Bull had now begun a recruitment drive to ramp up its facilities at Milton Keynes as it looked to create the right structure around its plan.

“Obviously we will inherit the vast majority of HRD UK, which is the operational side of Honda, based in Milton Keynes,” he explained. “So that gives us a standing start, in that already all the people that we already know and interface with, we’ll look to take under the new company.

“Then we are in the process of setting out some of the other roles that will be filled in the next coming weeks and months. But I think the agreement that we’ve achieved with Honda just buys us time to assemble the right group of people.”

Although Red Bull is now on the look-out for an individual to head up its engine division, Horner has ruled out early talk that it could swoop for former Mercedes chief Andy Cowell.

Asked whether he could be part of the project, Horner said: “What he’s achieved obviously in the recent 10 years of the sport has been mightily impressive. He was obviously a lynchpin of what Mercedes and HPP have delivered.

“I think that he’s obviously chosen to pursue I think other activities outside of Formula 1. But of course, as far as engines are concerned, he’s been the guy that has delivered year on year. But my understanding is that his interests currently lay outside of Formula 1.”

As an official engine manufacturer, Horner also confirmed that Red Bull would be obliged to provide customer engines to another outfit outside its current family if required by the regulations.

“By taking on the obligations of an engine manufacturer, you’re bound by those regulations of obligation to supply, so that would be no different to any other manufacturer.”

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As part of the discussions between teams, the FIA and the sport’s chiefs in an F1 Commission meeting on Thursday, an action plan for the transition to new power unit regulations was agreed.

Teams voted unanimously for an engine freeze to begin from the start of 2022, which opens the door for a new engine rules era to come into force for 2025.

This is a year earlier than originally anticipated, and it is hoped the combination of the freeze and the new timeframe will help reduce costs in the sport.

While F1 has been clear that the next generation of engine from 2025 will be turbo hybrids, an overhaul of the current concept will be evaluated by a high-level working group.

This committee will include both current and potential power unit manufacturers, as well as fuel suppliers.

While the specific details of the future engine rules may take some time to be sorted, F1’s current teams and the sport’s bosses have agreed on some key principles that need to be met.

These are:

1. Environmental sustainability and social and automotive relevance

2. Fully sustainable fuel

3. Creating a powerful and emotive power unit

4. Significant cost reduction

5. Attractiveness to new power unit manufacturers

The desire to have an ’emotive’ engine comes against the backdrop of long-standing criticisms against the current turbo hybrid engines for their lack of noise and brutality.

As well as the current engines being much quieter than the previous normally-aspirated V8s, the fact that they rev much lower in a bid to maximise torque characteristics has served to even further lessen the impact on observers.

Ways for the engines to become more brutal and louder would be to raise the rev limit, increase fuel flow and remove the MGU-H which serves to muffle much of the sound expelled by the exhaust.

The engine freeze agreed from 2022 is good news for Red Bull, which now has the way clear for it to secure a deal to takeover the Honda power units from that season.

However, there will be no framework within the freeze for engine power to be equalised if one manufacturer finds itself on the backfoot from that season.

While Red Bull had talked last year about a potential balance of power to level things up, it is understood that the matter was never seriously considered – so manufacturers will have to commit to the engine that they race with from the start of 2022.

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As part of the rebranding of Renault’s F1 project as Alpine for 2021, the French marque launched its 2021 academy on Wednesday, with three of its five members set to race in F2 this year.

Guanyu Zhou and Christian Lundgaard will return to F2 with UNI Virtuosi and ART Grand Prix respectively, while Oscar Piastri graduates to the category with Prema following his F3 title win last year.

Alpine Academy director Mia Sharizman outlined that both Zhou and Lundgaard are expected to fight for the F2 title this year after struggling to feature in the championship battle last season.

But Alpine appears limited on options to place its junior drivers in F1 moving forward. At the senior squad, Fernando Alonso has signed for 2021 on a two-year deal, while teammate Esteban Ocon is out of contract at the end of the season.

Ferrari has been able to place its young drivers with both Alfa Romeo and Haas for 2021, while Mercedes has George Russell at Williams. McLaren was the only Renault customer team in F1 last year, but has since switched to Mercedes power units, leaving Alpine without any affiliation to other teams.

Sharizman accepted that it “doesn’t make it any easier” for Alpine, but was confident there would be ways to work with other teams should it need to place its juniors without an existing affiliation.

“It is something that we have identified, ways and means to ultimately get the drivers to our seat,” Sharizman said.

“Without a power unit supply or without any connections, there can still be a collaboration between other teams. I won’t divulge too much into it.

“But having said that, we focus on what we have, we focus on the two race seats that we have, the academy that we have, and the tools that we have.

“Obviously, going into our team is the priority. But we believe that there is still room for collaboration with other teams, irrespective of the power unit supply.”

Alpine ran all three drivers in private F1 tests last year, sampling the 2018-spec Renault car, but it is unclear what appearances will be afforded to them this year.

Despite having a trio of youngsters all looking to make the final step to F1, Sharizman felt each driver was at a different stage of their careers.

“The three of them are three different years, going into the championship: you have Zhou in his third year, Christian in his second year, and obviously Oscar is a rookie,” said Sharizman when asked by Motorsport.com how he planned to manage all three drivers.

“It’s slightly a different proposition, and a different way of planning.

“It will bring the situation similar to what Ferrari has gone through last year. But at the moment, we do feel that for example in the case of Oscar, it would take time, but without that expectation, we are aware of how he can progress.

“We have to have a Plan A and a Plan B already for now. That is something that is in the back of our mind. We think it will be OK for us, and we can manage it well, and how we can ensure that the three drivers that we have get up to where they want to be.”

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This information was offered up by Aston Martin’s team principal Otmar Szafnauer in an interview with Sky Sports F1 looking at the campaign ahead.

With a rebranding from Racing Point to Aston Martin, plus the arrival of Sebastian Vettel, the Silverstone-based outfit seems bullish about its campaign ahead.

Reflecting on the car, Szafnauer said: “We didn’t have the normal latitude of development that we usually do, so from a philosophy standpoint running a low rake car, that’s stayed the same.

“Although the philosophy is a carry over, we will still have a lot of new parts on the car, a lot of new aerodynamic development and even a new chassis for us as well. So although the car will be similar to last year it’s predominantly new”.

A development freeze and token system was introduced last year by the FIA in order to help cut costs and help bridge the gap to the all-new car that was supported to first come in 2021 but has not been delayed until 2022.

This means most of the main hardware on the cars will be carried across from last season. However, each team has the ability to spend two tokens in order that they aren’t too heavily handicapped by a specific design aspect that was not to their liking in 2020.

Aston Martin appears to have chosen to spend its two tokens on a big ticket item: the survival cell.

Divisible by the B-B line, the survival cell is listed as two sections, both of which carry the cost of two tokens, meaning only one can be changed.

As such, Aston Martin will likely have made alterations to the rearward section of the survival cell in an effort to reverse a decision taken last season.

The RP20 featured the Side Impact Protection Spars above the sidepod inlet, mirroring the design of the Mercedes W10 it was modelled upon. That decision made it the only car in the field not to have the SIPS in the lower slung position, as was first introduced by Ferrari in 2017.

The decision to have the SIPS in the lower position is primarily driven by aerodynamic factors but will require the internal cooling solutions to be repositioned in order that the team can reap the full rewards of it.

This is actually something that the team spent a considerable amount of time and resource on last season, as a major upgrade package that was first raced in Mugello featured new sidepod bodywork (right).

This was part of a major overhaul that was designed to take into account the more efficient AMG M11 power unit, which required less cooling than its predecessor and allowed the team to cast aside the design it had adopted when studying the W10.

This year’s design will undoubtedly build on this principal, not only taking into account its experience with the new bodywork last season and another new power unit from HPP, but also its own foray with lower slung SIPS in 2019 (below).

Racing Point RP19, side pods

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Aston Martin, then Racing Point, was already in the middle of a storm regarding the token system last season, as both itself and Alpha Tauri were able to switch to 2020 parts supplied to them by Mercedes and Red Bull technologies respectively without having to spend tokens in doing so.

This meant both are able to use a 2020 specification gearbox and rear suspension layout. While AlphaTauri has elected not to go down that route, Aston Martin will almost certain take advantage of what it can.

Mercedes AMG F1 W11 rear suspension

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

The rear suspension on the W11 featured a new geometry, with the rear leg of the lower wishbone fixed higher and at a point much further back on the crash structure than we’d usually see.

The primary reason for this, as always, was not mechanical but for better aerodynamics, with the arm moved into a more desirable position for flow in the channel next to the diffuser.

Meanwhile, the inboard anchorage point was raised to reduce the airflow bottleneck where the diffuser ceiling is raised up to meet the underside of the crash structure and gearbox.

This comes off the back of it raising the inboard mounting point of the pullrod in 2019 for similar reasons.

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As the outfit ramps up preparations for the all-new era of F1, there are suggestions from Maranello that parts of its plan includes a total overhaul of its engine.

The Italian team was caught on the backfoot last year when a series of technical directives from the FIA regarding fuel flow measurements led it to suffer a power drop.

The lack of competitiveness on the horsepower front, allied to a too draggy car, resulted in Ferrari enduring its worst season in F1 for decades.

Ferrari is working on an upgraded engine for 2021 which it hopes will allow it to cut the deficit to the benchmark Mercedes power unit. However, even more ambitious work is being done for next year.

According to sources, Ferrari is ready to take a risk on an innovative engine that, if it works, could prove to be a game-changer in the sport.

The work is the result of efforts put in by Wolf Zimmermann, who has been entrusted with thinking up the concept for the engine that will power the new era cars.

One change that looks set to be adopted is for Ferrari to go down the Mercedes route of separating the compressor from the turbo – an idea that Honda also switched to several years ago.

Whereas both elements on the Ferrari are currently on the gearbox side of the engine, from next year the two elements will be either side of it – connected by a shaft.

But beyond that philosophical change, it is also understood that Ferrari is looking at taking the idea one step further – and bring the compressor actually inside the six-cylinder intake box with an all-new arrangement for the intercooler.

Such a revolutionary change would not only bring with it performance gains, but would also open up more aerodynamic opportunities thanks to making the overall engine layout more compact.

The trimming back of the engine size would also bring with it a weight benefit which could help with both the centre of gravity and the location of any ballast.

The new design idea will present a huge challenge, both in terms of ensuring that the performance gains work but also in guaranteeing that reliability is not compromised.

While some within Ferrari may have preferred for the team to carry on with a more traditional power unit design and use an evolution of the version that will be used in the SF21, the Italian outfit is determined to make the most of the opportunities afforded by the new 2022 regulations.

That is why the new concept is being pushed for, so that Ferrari can hit the ground running when F1’s new era begins.

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Magnussen, who was announced as part of Peugeot’s 2022 WEC line-up on Monday, was responding to comments from former boss Gunther Steiner.

Steiner claimed that he would be happy to call on either the Dane or fellow Haas refugee Romain Grosjean to stand in for Mick Schumacher or Nikita Mazepin if required, but Magnussen says he wouldn’t have “much interest in that”.

“Gunther is a good friend, as are many people in the Haas F1 team, but any talk about racing, like a one-off race, I don’t have much interest in that,” said Magnussen, whose primary program in 2021 is racing with Chip Ganassi Racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

“I like to be fully focused on what I am doing and I miss winning. I’ve done seven years of F1, [so] doing one more race I don’t think is that interesting.”

Asked if he was drawing a line under his F1 career, Magnussen replied: “If Mercedes came and asked me if I wanted to drive, I think everyone would look at that very seriously. [But] I have given F1 a very fair shot; I think I have done my best to try to be successful.

“I’ve done it and feel like I’m ready to go and win some stuff again – that’s really where I’m at.”

Magnussen explained that he believes he has continued to improve as a driver and is ready to move forward in his career after parting company with Haas following four seasons there.

“I continued to develop as a driver even though the results [with Haas] weren’t getting better,” he said. “I feel like I am in a very good spot – with the experience I had I felt like I was ready to take some sort of step.”

He described moving into sportscars and signing for Peugeot to drive in the WEC as “the perfect step for me”.

Steiner said last week that Haas had parted company with Magnussen and Grosjean “without fall-out” and “wouldn’t mind” having either back, although he conceded that he hadn’t talked to either about acting as a substitute.

New Dale Coyne Racing-Honda IndyCar driver Grosjean had already stated that he would be open to filling in for another driver, at the same time as describing his fulltime career in F1 as a “closed book”.

Haas is planning to appoint a full-season reserve, a role filled by Pietro Fittipaldi in 2019-’20. The Brazilian, who took Grosjean’s place after his accident in Bahrain for the final two F1 races of 2021, remains a candidate for the role, according to Steiner.

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