Red Bull happy despite balance limitations: 'Went very well for the team'

F1 News

23 February 2022 at 19:22
Last update 23 February 2022 at 22:45
  • GPblog.com

The first day of testing in Barcelona was a success for the Red Bull Racing team. Max Verstappen drove almost 150 laps in the RB18 on Wednesday, giving him the second most kilometres of the day after Ferrari. Guillaume Rocquelin talks about the developments on the first official day.

Red Bull had few problems on the first day. With 147 laps driven, the reliability of the car seemed immediately positive. Verstappen himself already said that he was looking back positively on the team's productive first day. Head of race engineering Rocquelin also sounds optimistic. There are certainly areas for improvement for the team, but with a total of five test days still to go, the team is not worried

"I’m happy because today went really well for the Team. We gave ourselves the optimistic target of 700km and we finished around three laps short of that, which for the first day of testing is quite unusual. Things went well, we did some tests and we have a good direction for how to improve the car. Max is pleased so far, there are some balance limitations but nothing that makes us think we need to turn things upside down to make the car work," Rocquelin says in an official Red Bull press release.

Perez takes the wheel from Verstappen

On Thursday, it will be Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez's turn to take the wheel of the RB18, giving the Dutchman a chance to watch from the sidelines. The test days in Barcelona continue through Friday, where there will also be driving on an artificial wet track.