Max Verstappen was reluctant to give his true impressions of the Red Bull RB14 after his time in the car last week during the weather affected first four days of testing in Barcelona, but now after a day of running in ‘normal’ conditions the young Dutchman believes his new car is faster than the RB13 he raced with last year.
On Tuesday evening, at Circuit de Catalunya, he was asked by journalists how the new car differs from last year’s version, to which Verstappen replied, “It’s difficult to say because of the new tarmac. It really changes the whole car, the whole way of driving, also with the new tyres. It feels alright. The car is definitely faster than last year, so that is positive.”
“We did a lot of laps, that was very important to get the mileage on the car. It was a good day. We had one small battery problem so we had to change that – it always takes a little time – but afterwards it was all good again.”
“The most important thing was to get a lot of laps under our belt, see how the car was behaving, so we managed to do that.”
Halfway through the afternoon, the RB14 came to a standstill out on track, but according to the Dutchman it was a minor issue, “We had a small battery problem. It took some time to change it but afterwards it was all good again.”
“All good but we still don’t know what the others are doing, so we have to wait for Melbourne and see how good or bad we are,” summed up Verstappen who will make way for Daniel Ricciardo in the car on Wednesday and return to action for his final day of testing on Thursday.