The ninth place in the times table after the first day of testing does not worry Max at all Verstappen and Red Bull. And the reasons are many: the RB18 only needed to grind kilometers, regardless of the chronometric performance; and the most important aspect was that the day’s plan was completed smoothly. All objectives fully achieved, not to mention that the Dutchman achieved his best performance with the C2 tire, therefore with a compound at a disadvantage compared to the best.
Even in the words of the world champion – ‘workaholic’ of the day with 147 laps completed (here the ranking) – confidence prevails: “The car is nice, but the most important thing is that it is fast, and that is what we are trying to understand. We wanted to do some laps today to get used to the car and to have a general understanding of how it performs. On top of that, we needed the mileage to see how the various parts hold up. Everything worked out pretty well, it was a good start and a positive day. Tonight, we will look into things in more detail and see what we need to do to improve. Checo will drive tomorrow and then I can’t wait to get back into RB18 on Friday“.
Team principal Christian Horner he added: “It’s been a very short vacation but it’s great to be back on track and see number one on the car, he hasn’t been seen on an F1 car in a long time and our goal this year is to keep him on our car. We are thrilled to start this new era of sport and see the car racing on the track for the first time. With such a huge rule change, this year is even more fascinating. We have a great team and we are fully motivated. Max said the car was good, so it was a positive ‘first’“.
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