Mekies: “How proud the power unit is, ‘Engineer Verstappen’ will now make us grow”

The words of the Red Bull team principal Max Verstappen feared spending the days in Barcelona more stuck in the pits than on the track, but this was not the case. The Red Bull-Ford power unit allowed the RB22 and the Racing Bulls VCARB03 to clock up kilometres, an excellent start for the Milton Keynes and Faenza teams although their performances for now are far from their respective rivals. Team principal Laurent Mekies is very satisfied at the end of the Shakedown and thanked the whole team profusely also for the ‘small hours’ in Milton Keynes forced by Isack Hadjar’s accident on Tuesday. “We knew it would be a really special moment to be here for the first time in the RB22 with our own power unit,” said Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies. “The last few months have been incredibly hectic getting ready for this Shakedown and finally at 9am on Monday we were ready to roll straight out of the garage. I must take this opportunity to say a big thank you and congratulate everyone at Milton Keynes because it was a historic moment to see the car out there. On Monday we completed more than a hundred laps with Isack, then Tuesday was a little more difficult for us. Max ran in the morning and only did one long run before the rain came, but we thought it would be interesting to race in the wet with this new generation of car. We switched to Isack in the afternoon and there was no possibility of putting on dry tires, but we got good data in the wet. He went off track at the end of the day, in very difficult conditions and with still a lot of things to sort out on the car and they came after a very positive day for him on Monday. The number of laps completed by Isack and the development and learning he and the Team have gained cannot be understated. “We have a lot to learn from this week and Max’s experience and engineering precision will help us shape our preparations for Bahrain and beyond,” added Mekies. “As for the expectations we had set for ourselves from the power unit over these first three days, I can only underline how proud we are of everyone who delivered this engine to us. Ford was here trackside to see it all come to life and a big thank you to them for their contribution and support in this new adventure. Of course, it’s still early and nothing is perfect, but we have already started learning and working as one team on this. It was a great satisfaction, but it doesn’t change the scope of the journey ahead. We know we have to do our homework and proceed step by step.”