Red Bull’s winter was focused on rectifying the issues they suffered with last year’s RB20, with the aim of contending for the Constructors’ title once again and bettering their 3rd place finish of 2024.

But when it arrived on track earlier this week, the RB21 looked remarkably similar to the RB20 that left Abu Dhabi last December. So what, if anything, has changed?

The team have stuck with the overall core concept of the RB20 meaning visually there don’t appear to be many differences, though there likely are subtle alterations to allow the team a better baseline to develop from for the rest of the year.

At the front, the nose looks to be slightly more rounded than it was on its predecessor. The front wing, at least of this specification, is incredibly close to the RB20’s but given that this is a bolt-on part it’s likely to change over the year. It’s also possible that there have been some changes to its construction to maximise its flexibility before the new technical directive comes in from the Spanish Grand Prix.

Mechanically speaking, Red Bull have stuck with their push rod suspension at the front and at the rear but there may be small, subtle changes to the way the suspension is packaged to optimise its aerodynamic effect though these aren’t visually obvious. 

Onto the inlets and sidepods and these follow the same philosophy and design as was seen from their higher downforce specification last season. The cooling cannons of the initial RB20 are gone, at least for now, but there’s still a vertical and horizontal sidepod inlet being run simultaneously – a design that’s been adopted by much of the field this year. Though the cannons are gone, the inlets that used to feed into them at either side of the halo have not but they have moved to be beneath the halo mount points rather than above.

Externally, the shape of the engine cover and sidepods may have been carried over, but there are clues to there having been internal changes to the cooling setup. Liam Lawson’s running on the morning of day 2 of testing was interrupted by a reported water pressure issue which perhaps points to there being a new cooling setup that the team are working to adapt to for this year.

Further rearwards and the rear wing appears to have a very similar design to the RB20 – a similarly sized corner cut out between the mainplane and endplate and a similar V-cut out in the centre.

Though there are not many visual differences between the RB20 and RB21, the way the new car is handling on track is positive in Max Verstappen’s view, a clear difference to the RB20.

Speaking to media following his first test session in the RB21, Verstappen said, “The car was quite decent to drive, to be honest.

“In terms of pace, it’s always difficult to say, but I enjoyed it. I guess that’s the most important part of it. It was a bit more predictable.”

But this positive feeling came with a word of caution from Verstappen, as he called back to how the RB20 behaved early last season before things went more downhill from the mid-phase of the year. Indeed the RB20 won the Bahrain Grand Prix and five of the first seven grands prix.

You could therefore argue that what’s more important to Red Bull is the path of development they follow over the season, which will of course be helped by the baseline they start with, but is hugely impacted by factors like their correlation.

This was an issue Red Bull suffered specifically in the middle of 2024, where what they saw from upgrades in the virtual world, namely through the wind tunnel and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), became mismatched with what they were seeing once the parts were bolted on. 

Their technical director, Pierre Wache, has spoken to this being one of two main issues that plagued the RB20, alongside difficulty with on track balance.

Therefore Red Bull’s aim for this year is to expand this working window, improving the car’s balance and overall compliance. When asked whether this had been achieved thus far, Verstappen was reluctant to comment about specifics; “it’s just improved everywhere compared to last year. I don’t want to go too much in detail,” he said.

Though you might expect Red Bull to pull out a surprise upgrade package between testing and the first race in Australia, Christian Horner has shut down this possibility.

“It’s basically the car that will start the season,” he said. “There may be some subtle changes introduced between now and then, but fundamentally it’s what we’ll be taking to Melbourne.”

This in and of itself is even further confirmation that this year is one of evolution rather than revolution, a trend that looks to extend to the rest of the grid too as they all, bar Ferrari, converge on what is now a near-universal concept.

Horner spoke to this too, “the competition is very tight and, of course, in the last year of this set of regulations, you can see the convergence,” he said. “The cars all look incredibly similar today and I think it’s going to be very, very competitive throughout the season from the first race all the way through the season.”