The Red Bull Formula 1 team’s pre-season tests in Bahrain have ended with mixed feelings. The team sees itself as having the potential to be among the best and fight for the title, but on the other hand, Pierre Waché, technical director of the Austrian squad, says that “it has not been as smooth a test as we expected”. Even so, he points out that “it is better to find problems here than later on”.
During the three days of testing, they were able to see how the RB21’s one-lap pace seems to be competitive, but in a race situation many doubts have arisen. Lawson and Verstappen each had a double session to test the car, with Lawson taking charge of the first day of testing on the second day and Max on the third. George Russell led after completing 81 laps with the Mercedes and left Verstappen, the reigning champion, 0.021 seconds behind. Both Red Bull drivers had minor problems that prevented them from accumulating track time.
Better safe than sorry
As we said after these days of testing, the director of the Austrian team, Pierre Waché, took stock and said that it is better to detect problems in time to solve them and not already immersed in the hectic season. “It hasn’t been as smooth a test as we expected and as the team expected, but it is better to find some problems now than later and that’s why we’re here, to understand the car. The weather has not been on our side and it is not very representative on this track, but we have tried to explore the potential of the car and understand how it responds to different configurations, and I think we have more or less succeeded,” he explained.
“I think it is very difficult to see a starting grid order for Melbourne at the moment. You can see that four teams seem quite fast, including us, but we don’t look too much at other teams, we try to focus on our program. I’m not as happy as I could be because the car didn’t respond the way we wanted it to at times, but it’s going in the right direction, it’s just that maybe the magnitude of the direction wasn’t as big as we expected and it’s something we need to work on for the first race and future development,” added the Red Bull manager.
The test days in Bahrain were marked by unusual weather in the area, especially in the morning. “The weather wasn’t on our side and wasn’t very representative of this track, but we also tried to explore the potential of the vehicle and try to understand how it responds to different configurations, and I think we more or less succeeded”.
Verstappen sees work to be done at Red Bull
The reigning world champion finished second in the final day’s qualifying and after the end of the day, Verstappen gave his assessment of how he sees the car with which he will try to retain the championship title. “I think we had a decent day today. There were some small problems, but overall, we completed quite a bit of what we wanted to do,” said the Red Bull driver. “I think it wasn’t bad, but at the same time there’s still some work to be done. However, it is what we expected and we will continue working and trying to improve and, hopefully, when we get to Melbourne, we will learn a little more by analyzing all the data and seeing where we are.
“It’s hard to know what everyone’s pace is, so we still have a bit of work to do. We can’t wait to get back to proper racing in Australia,” said Verstappen.