Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda Deputy Technical Director, Jody Egginton, has said that the first day of winter testing held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya ahead of the start of the 2019 Formula 1 season was “quite a good day”.
Russian Daniil Kyvat was in the car for the first day of testing. He completed a total of seventy-seven laps, his best being a 1:19.464.
Egginton said: “It is good to get back to the serious business of testing and to understand our new car. We end today having started down the road of achieving this, and as always we are starting to answer questions but also generating new ones at a similar rate!”
He said that due to the cold weather conditions at the start of the day, they began with simple tests and then progressed onto longer runs.
“With the cold conditions early on, we worked through a programme of basic tests before moving to longer runs as the morning progressed.
“In the afternoon, we also conducted a series of longer runs that has allowed us to get our first view of the chassis, PU, and tyres over long runs in reasonably stable track conditions.”
Egginton said that the team ran into some small issues which meant that part of their test programme has had to be carried over to day two.
“In this respect, I think it’s been quite a good day, although we have lost some time in the garage with a number of small niggles which means we have a few tests and test items to carry over into Day 2.”
New signing for 2019, Alexander Albon, will be in the car for the second day of testing, with Egginton hopeful that they are making progress.
“We will stay focused on the task in hand with Alex [Albon] stepping into the car for what will be his first full day of testing in a F1 car, and we are confident of making more progress with STR14, and Alex, tomorrow.”
