Carlos Sainz Jr. was left frustrated by the weather at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Monday, as the Spaniard was restricted to just twenty-six laps after taking over the driving duties at the Renault Sport Formula One Team from Nico Hülkenberg.
Sainz, on-loan at the Enstone-based squad from Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, was still able to set the fifth fastest time of the day on Monday, just under two-seconds off the pace of Daniel Ricciardo upfront, but he admitted it was not an easy day to push, particularly as the polar-like conditions made tyre warm-up almost impossible.
The twenty-three-year-old is hoping for better conditions when he next takes to the track in the RS18 on Tuesday morning, but he was full of praise for the team for the amazing job of getting the car ready for pre-season testing.
“It’s been an encouraging day, if a bit frustrating for me because of the polar weather this afternoon!” said Sainz. “It was quite tricky out there and that meant I couldn’t get a true feeling in the car.
“Every time I went out it took a while for the tyres to warm up and therefore I had to be quite cautious. I couldn’t find the limit of the car today, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and going again; hopefully with some better conditions so I can gather some better feedback.
“Despite the cold weather here, the effort from everyone has been superb.”
