Red Bull drivers respond to Mercedes-style innovations on RB20 – F1 news round-up

The Red Bull RB20 features a structure not dissimilar to last year's Mercedes, with the W15 going another way.
The 2024 launch season is now complete, and the Mercedes-style innovations on the Red Bull RB20 have raised eyebrows in Friday’s F1 news.
We caught up with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez at the launch of the RB20, as well as team principal Christian Horner, to get their views on the car and much more from Milton Keynes.
With additional reporting from Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper, here are the main F1 news headlines to bring you from this fine Friday.
A closer look at the Mercedes-style changes on the Red Bull RB20
While Adrian Newey teased a ‘conservative’ evolution on the Red Bull this year, Christian Horner insisted at the car’s launch it was anything but – and a look at the new car shows it does appear radically different.
Not least because on the sidepod inlet and engine cover, it adopts a similar shape to the Mercedes W14 of last season – so the question this season will be whether or not Newey has been able to take that area of the car to another level.
“There’s great innovation on the car. No doubt it gets scrutinised over the coming weeks,” Horner told media including PlanetF1.com.
“I think creativity has been strong in the team, and you can see that in some of the solutions that they’ve come up with.
“So it’s not a conservative evolution. There’s some real innovation on the car.”
Read more: Revealed: Red Bull’s ‘not tactical’ Mercedes style changes with the RB20
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez respond to Mercedes-style RB20 features
As for the two Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen nodded to that particular part of his new challenger and smiled when addressing it to media including PlanetF1.com.
“I would still call it a Red Bull-style. But I know what you mean,” the three-time reigning World Champion said.
Perez added when asked if he was surprised to see such a feature: “Yes! A bit!
“But at the same time it just shows how much this team is looking to move forwards and pushing all the boundaries. It’s really great to see.”
Read more: Max Verstappen responds to comments on his RB20’s Mercedes looks
Christian Horner confirms his presence in Bahrain
While his investigation at Red Bull is ongoing over allegations he denies, Christian Horner confirmed he will be in Bahrain for pre-season testing next week.
He adamantly told TalkSPORT that his future lies with Red Bull.
“I’ve been here since the beginning,” he said. “I’ve built the team, I feel a tremendous loyalty to the people that work here. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.”
Read more: Christian Horner investigation: Red Bull team boss will be present in Bahrain
Carlos Sainz hopeful of future title challenges after Ferrari stint ends
While he has one more season with Ferrari, Carlos Sainz hopes to see himself compete for the World Championship in future – even if that is not as a Scuderia driver.
He will be leaving Maranello at the end of the season to make way for Lewis Hamilton’s arrival, but with several options in front of him, he wants to pick a competitive one for the future.
“I don’t know, I hope it’s not my last chance to go for a title,” Sainz told media including PlanetF1.com when asked about the subject.
“And obviously, with so many options open for 2025 in the market, I will make sure I also look for the most interesting ones in that sense.
“So, it’s an important year for me because I’m still wearing red and I still have the target of becoming champion in Ferrari and I still have one more chance, but my ultimate chance is to become World Champion in general – then it’s [about] who you are achieving it with.”
Read more: Carlos Sainz responds to last career title chance concern with Ferrari exit confirmed
Ferrari post correct pit stop practice clip after small botch goes viral
Nobody wants a small error to go viral, even more so when you’re a Formula 1 team.
Now, a 3.5-second pit stop would normally be notched as a pretty slow one in race trim, but when Ferrari posted an overhead clip of pit stop practice on Thursday with the caption ‘poetry in motion’, the slow left front attracted a huge amount of attention in the comments.
The team made light of it the day after though, posting the clip they planned on using with a much faster stop. The overhead camera angle is fantastic, in fairness.
Read more: Ferrari reveal new pit stop video after botched ‘poetry in motion’ post