New rules, usual Verstappen: 2nd time and pace like a ‘marathon runner’

Red Bull is still there There was great curiosity for Red Bull on this first day of testing in Bahrain: eyes were focused above all on the power unit of the car from Milton Keynes, the first built directly by the Austro-English team in its own facilities. In Barcelona the first signs had been encouraging but today in Sakhir, with Max Verstappen at the wheel of the RB22 for the whole day, even better signs arrived. The four-time world champion not only set the second best time of the session, but also clocked up 136 laps. Only Williams – which however gave space to both Albon and Sainz during the day – did better. Verstappen satisfied “Today we had a good day – confirmed Verstappen at the end of the session – we ran a lot of laps and tested different programmes. Our power unit is still a completely new design compared to others, so there is a lot to learn and understand ahead of the first race. We ran a lot of test procedures that we might encounter during a race weekend: this might be easier for an engine builder who has been in the business for a long time, but when you’re a beginner you need to test everything. Of course, we also ran a lot of laps ‘normal'”. “Everyone is running completely different programs – added Verstappen – so we are not focusing on lap times and the classification, but rather on understanding the car and the tyres. This is a completely different track in Bahrain to Barcelona, ​​so it is good to have this comparison. Looking at the day, everything went well and we had no problems, which was the most important thing, so now I can look to Friday to find out what else we can learn.”