Verstappen hopes new cars will mean closer driving

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Red Bull's Max Verstappen says that he hopes the new tyre and downforce regulations being brought in for the 2017 Formula One world championship will mean that drivers will get to race closer together than previous seasons.

"Hopefully it mixes up a bit the grid," said Verstappen when asked what he would like to see from the new specifications.

"That's always good for Formula One in general but hopefully for us as well. And then from there hopefully closer racing, less degradation when you're behind someone from the tyres so you can push a bit harder behind someone else for a few more laps."

Although it was too soon to know how the new RB13 would fare on track against its rivals, Verstappen was clearly impressed with how the new car was looking.

Red Bull Racing launches the RB13!

"The car looks very aggressive, and I think hopefully when it looks that aggressive and cool it will be fast, but we will have to wait and see. The cars look a lot better than they have the last three years," he said.

"The biggest changes of course are the tyres and then the general downforce on the car which is quite a lot more - up to 20 or 30 per cent. It's a lot tougher for us to drive around the track.

"Lap time wise we will be around three seconds faster on some tracks, that's quite a big step - normally from one season to another if there aren't many changes you gain half a second.

"The car will get a bit heavier. The look of the car is also a bit different, with the rear wing a lot lower and wider and the front wing more of a V-shape. Hopefully means we can drive close to each other."

Verstappen added he had no superstitious qualms about the numbering of the RB13: "For me the number doesn't matter. I think there are some championships won from other constructors as well with the number 13 in it so it's all right."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.