Red Bull engine already reliable Even in the last few days the Red Bull team principal, Laurent Mekies, had moderated his expectations in view of the seasonal debut. The French manager had even suggested that it might happen that he wouldn’t even be able to leave the garage, given that in this championship the RB22 will bring an engine entirely produced in-house, with the help of Ford, to the track for the first time. However, none of this happened on the first day on track for the Barcelona Shakedown, because Isack Hadjar was able to complete over 100 laps – as reported by L’Equipe – and close the session ahead of everyone in 1’18.159. Definitely a good debut. Hadjar’s words Speaking to Formula 1, Isack Hadjar commented: “The day was quite productive. Surprisingly we managed to do many more laps than we expected. Everything went quite smoothly and we only had small problems. So it’s quite impressive considering it’s our first day with our own engine. Overall these cars seem more predictable than the previous ones, a little simpler. As far as we’re concerned there are still some things to sort out, but the start is solid, it was a great first day.”
