Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were both satisfied with how the Barcelona pre-season test went.
After three days of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were in good spirits.
The two Red Bulls were only defeated by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and George Russell on the last day, ranking third and fourth, respectively.
Sergio Perez completed 74 circuits during the wet to dry afternoon session, catching up on track time lost due to a gearbox problem on Thursday.
“Everything worked well in the running we got and the car felt good,” Verstappen said afterwards.
“But our morning was somewhat interrupted by a number of red flags across the session, so we couldn’t complete all of our planned programme.
“We just continued from what I did on day one and I think that was the most important objective for Barcelona. What is positive is that the car is running smoothly. I don’t pay attention to the lap times just yet; I will look into that when we get into Q3 in Bahrain.
“I just focus on doing a lot of laps and nailing down every single aspect of the car. I have really enjoyed driving the RB18 this week, it has a nice stable balance and I think it looks cool as well, so it’s good to jump into.”
A “very promising” first F1 test for the RB18
At the beginning of Friday afternoon, Perez battled the wet conditions on an artificially dampened track, but by the conclusion of the day, he had the opportunity to do some quick runs and finished third.
“I think we have a good baseline and good potential,” he said after climbing out of the RB18.
“It is obviously early days, but I am really hopeful we will make some good steps before Bahrain and keep progressing with all the information we are going to gather from Barcelona.
“It is important to keep learning from my driving and the way I am adapting to the car and my team and then what the best way will be to maximise that.
“I think this season the challenge will be about maximising the whole weekend under the new regulations.”
Guillaume Rocquelin, Head of Race Engineering, stated the RB18 has shown promise at this early time of the season, with both drivers delighted.
“We had a good day today; the drivers were happy and we started to put in some decent lap times,” he commented.
“To sum up the week, I would say it has been a very promising few days with this new car and the most pleasing thing for me is that we have got a solid platform and direction to build from.
“We will consolidate some things that we have learnt here before [the next test in] Bahrain, but it is more considerate than a big step.”
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