Verstappen wins in Abu Dhabi
Verstappen acknowledges Red Bull must 'learn from mistakes' in previous seasons if they are to build on Abu Dhabi victory when racing returns in 2021
Verstappen acknowledges Red Bull must 'learn from mistakes' in previous seasons if they are to build on Abu Dhabi victory when racing returns in 2021

(BBC) – Max Verstappen’s victory in a dreary Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi was the sort of race Red Bull expect of themselves but have only rarely been able to deliver these past seven years.

The Dutchman utterly dominated the race, in a performance that evoked some of the dominant drives of Sebastian Vettel when he was romping to four consecutive world titles with Red Bull at the beginning of this decade.

That, though, was another era. And not just for Vettel, who has appeared a shadow of the driver he was back then in his last three years at Ferrari.

The advent of hybrid engines in 2014 put an end to Red Bull’s success and ushered in an unprecedented level of achievement for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, to whom all the sport’s records have surrendered. Red Bull have had to be satisfied with scraps that have fallen off the table.

There have been moments of promise here and there for Red Bull, but they have been islands in an ocean of silver – and now black.

Recent years have followed a familiar pattern – Red Bull start the season poorly, they make strong progress to the point that they challenge towards the end of the year, only to fall back again over the winter.

Is there any reason to believe 2021 will be any different? Well, maybe.

What happened in Abu Dhabi?

Although Verstappen’s victory at Yas Marina appeared to come out of the blue, it was not totally against the run of play. The team have been edging closer to Mercedes for some time now.

Verstappen was pushing Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas hard for the lead in the first part of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the start of November, albeit the Finn was delayed by a piece of bodywork stuck in his car and disrupting his aerodynamics.

He was looking a potential winner in the slippery conditions in Turkey, with Hamilton still a couple of places behind, when a spin while he was attacking Racing Point’s Sergio Perez for second place derailed his afternoon.

Verstappen finished just over a second behind Hamiton in the first Bahrain race, and was just 0.056secs off pole in the second a week later. Red Bull had hopes he could challenge Bottas and Hamilton’s stand-in George Russell for victory there, only for Verstappen to crash on the first lap trying to avoid a collision between Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Perez.

In Abu Dhabi this weekend, the Red Bull was simply a quicker car, and although Hamilton admitted to not being at 100% after his brush with coronavirus, even a healthy Hamilton would not have been able to challenge Verstappen, team and driver agreed.

Mercedes had two main problems. The car “wouldn’t turn” in corners Five, Six and Seven, team boss Toto Wolff said, and they were losing 0.3secs a lap just in those three corners. The last sector of the lap – the sequence of corners around the hotel and marina – “wasn’t great either,” Wolff added.

On top of that, in the last few races Mercedes have become aware of a reliability concern with their MGU-K, the part of the engine’s hybrid system that recovers and redeploys energy through the rear axle.

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