Former F1 driver Robert Doornbos believes, Red Bull need to make improvements to their reliability if Max Verstappen is to challenge Lewis Hamilton for the driver's championship this season. Hamilton has recently agreed on a one-year extension with Mercedes and will be looking to beat Michael Schumacher's record of seven world titles. Verstappen is widely regarded as the second-best driver on the grid behind Hamilton. However, last year the Dutchman was more than 140 points adrift of Hamilton after winning just two Grands Prix. "There has been that opportunity every year," Doornbos told Motorsport.com. "If the car had been a bit more reliable last season, Max would have been in the title fight that year. "It all has to do with how much more performance they can get out of the car and the engine and whether that is not at the expense of reliability. Look at Mercedes: they have a car that is bloody fast and as reliable as a tank. "They will have to fully focus on that at Red Bull and Honda. They would like to close the collaboration at a peak and therefore try to close the difference in performance as well as possible. But they also have to make sure that that thing just makes it to the finish every weekend and that it doesn't come to a standstill five times, like last year." Doornbos is hopeful that 2021's minimal regulation changes could bring renewed optimism for the season ahead. "The big problem was that the regulations changes in the past were always quite significant,” he explained. "Red Bull then started developing a new car in good spirits, but once on the track, the behavior of the car turned out not to correspond with what the team had seen in the wind tunnel and in the CFD data. “Once on the track, the correlation was not there. In natural conditions, when you are dealing with bumps and wind, they were always quite far from it in the beginning. They just missed a lot of aerodynamic performance, which should be one of Red Bull's strongest points. "As a result, during the first races of the year many things had to be rectified. But during the season they had the strength that they could continue to develop as the fastest of everyone. "The big advantage of this year is that the rules have been changed minimally by COVID-19 and that the changes that do exist have been announced in time." "As a result, during the first races of the year many things had to be rectified. But during the season they had the strength that they could continue to develop as the fastest of everyone. "The big advantage of this year is that the rules have been changed minimally by COVID-19 and that the changes that do exist have been announced in time." New F1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix begins on March 28.
Source: Express