F1 | Coulthard warns Red Bull: “Ferrari can be a direct rival”

Less than 24 hours left until the engines start. In Bahrain everything is practically ready for the pre-season tests, which will effectively act as a prologue to the world championship which will also start in Sakhir next week. There Red Bull it's clearly the car to beat, but Ferrari, Mercedes e McLaren they certainly don't want to be an extra. David Coulthard, former driver of the Milton Keynes team and now brand ambassador, he was present at the launch of the new one RB20, and interviewed by the official channels of formula 1 we didn't want to say too much about the new single-seater Adrian Newey tailor-made for MaxVerstappen, but he gave some interesting indications.

RB20, updates from tests up to the Bahrain Grand Prix

“Red Bull works as expected in those conditions, there was no surprise – Coulthard said. I think the technical team was satisfied, I'm talking about the cooling system and the sensors. You may think the car was fantastic at the time, but the only thing that matters is how it will present itself at qualifying in Bahrain and then at Sunday's Grand Prix. It's a basic interaction, there will be updates already in the tests and up to the last day, and new material could also arrive on Friday free practice, and this should change the performance, balance and lap time."

Ferrari competitive only after solving the race pace problems

“I certainly don't have a crystal ball, but you have to consider how last year Ferrari had a strong car in the flying lap. If they have managed to improve whatever made their race pace difficult, then they are real contenders for the world title. Mercedes were making great strides at the end of the year, while McLaren, once again, were at the back of the grid in Bahrain, but in Abu Dhabi they were on the front row, so they had huge growth over the course of the year.”