F1 2016 review: Red Bull takes big leap as Verstappen stars

Tech highlights

By Giorgio Piola and Matt Somerfield

Red Bull’s ascendance toward second place in the championship showed the team's dogged determination, but it also heralded a stark warning for the rest of the field, as unlike in previous seasons its performance was not entirely down to aerodynamic development.

In fact, Red Bull was relatively quiet on the aero front, suggesting it switched focus to 2017 pretty early on, with only circuit-relevant updates coming through from time to time.

Instead it turned its attention to maximising efficiency, concentrating its efforts on matching on its aero choices with what energy, be it petrochemical or electrical, could be deployed throughout a lap.

Its stand-out aero solution was fitted to the RB12 during the pre-season test, as it adopted a splitter winglet, rather than the ‘bat-wing’ that was in vogue due to Mercedes.

These winglets are used to manipulate the direction of the Y250 vortex shed by the front wing, improving its direction and hopefully performance in general.

Red Bull RB12 T Tray splitter

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Season ratings

Jon Noble - 9

Having come into the year with fairly low expectations because it was not sure of the progress that Renault could make, Red Bull emerged as the main threat to Mercedes after a season when it really stepped up its game.

With more horsepower to play with, an improved chassis that had cured its low-speed weaknesses and the rampant excitement of Max Verstappen, the Milton Keynes-based team has set itself up for a proper title assault in 2017.

Oleg Karpov – 8

Red Bull's constant progress through the year and the way the team improved, especially given the fact the engine saga ended only in December, should really worry its rivals.

Should Renault make another step forward like last winter, Red Bull will fight for the title in 2017.

Glenn Freeman – 8

Red Bull has the most exciting driver line-up in Formula 1, and the stars could be aligning for it to return to the title picture in 2017.

Ricciardo rose to the challenge of Verstappen and stepped up his game, even if his teammate often grabbed the headlines. Red Bull played the fun-loving underdogs this year – let's hope it can maintain that light-hearted approach more than it did last time it was fighting for championships.

Kate Walker – 7

A dramatic driver swap before the European season saw Max Verstappen replace Daniil Kvyat - who had secured a podium finish for the team two races earlier in Shanghai - in the run-up to the Spanish Grand Prix.

Although harsh, Red Bull's decision was proved to be the right one when the young Dutch racer claimed victory at the Circuit de Catalunya after the two Mercedes took each other out on the first lap.

Daniel Ricciardo had a solid year, finishing third in the drivers' championship, and the team can boast they were the only non-Mercedes race winners of 2016.

Pablo Elizalde – 8

Red Bull and Renault must get credit for bouncing back from a terrible 2015 season to become Mercedes' main challenger, especially in the second half of the season.

If the French engine manufacturer can take a similar step forward next year, Red Bull should be able to make things harder for Mercedes, and that would be great news for Formula 1.

Guillaume Navarro – 9

For sure, the Renault customer power unit – named TAG Heuer – improved a lot. But Red Bull also managed to transcend its driver line-up and the atmosphere in the garage, making an electroshock out of Max Verstappen.

The Dutch driver didn't just shake up the F1 world; he also united the team towards his victory hopes. Milton Keynes can now dream again with the best line-up in the field.

Erwin Jaeggi – 8

Boosted by the improved Renault power unit and the bold driver line-up change, Red Bull found its wings again and made a pretty good step in closing the gap with Mercedes. Promoting Max Verstappen turned out to be a stroke of genius, although one Russian driver would disagree.

The driver swap gave the Dutchman the opportunity to develop at the same rate as he had done during his debut season and it also pushed Daniel Ricciardo to rise to a new level, something he immediately did by grabbing pole in Monaco and only missing out on victory in that race cause of a set of tyres being stuck at the back of the garage.

Jacobo Vega - 9

I would like to imagine this car with a Mercedes engine in the back, and we probably would have had a completely different championship - more interesting, for sure.

Ricciardo and Verstappen are a really amazing couple of drivers and they can always rely on Newey's designs, which is very important. Red Bull is one of the teams I'm really looking forward to see next season.