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Can Red Bull - or the rule tweaks - stop the Mercedes steamroller?
The boring answer, of course, is no. Mercedes has stability in terms of personnel, it stopped development of the 2020 car early to focus on 2021, and it has the reliability and momentum of success on its side. So why would the steamroller stop?
But let's take an optimistic view and look at the back end of last season when, in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen was genuinely on the pace of the Mercedes drivers.
Red Bull started the season further behind than it would have liked, with a car that seemed to have a much narrower operating window than the Mercedes. Rival aero people in the paddock seem to suggest that the higher-rake philosophy that Red Bull sticks with means it is always going to have a smaller optimal operating window than the flatter set-up of the Mercedes. Red Bull is a top-class team and it's acutely aware that it needs to start the season stronger than it has in recent years.
