Red Bull Aston Martin Racing‘s Max Verstappen said that covering 128 laps on the first day of 2019 Formula 1 testing completed a “really good day” for the team.
2019 marks Red Bull’s first year with Honda-supplied power units following its split with Renault Sport at the end of ’18.
While Red Bull have been cautiously optimistic over its chances in a season of learning for the team, Verstappen was pleased with his first real impressions of the new package at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Verstappen ended the day fourth fastest of 11 runners setting a best time of a 1 minute 19.426 seconds, 1.2s off of Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow pacesetter Sebastian Vettel on the same C3 tyres.
“To do 128 laps on the first day of testing is a really good day, so I’m very happy with that,” said Verstappen.
“We collected a lot of data, which is really important, and we’ll analyse everything tonight to see what we can improve on tomorrow when Pierre [Gasly, Red Bull team-mate] is in the car.”
The Dutchman, who had a very strong end to his 2018 season, endured a quiet start to his day – managing just two laps before a flurry of activity just before lunch. The 21-year-old then went on to produce a steady stream of laps to leave him second on the distance covered leaderboard behind Vettel, who set the tone with 169 laps.
Verstappen added that he will analyse the data to see where he can improve in his performance with the new-for-2019 RB15 when he returns to driving duties on Wednesday.
“I’ll also go into detail tonight and tomorrow to see where I can improve for my second day,” he continued.
“So far, so good and I’m happy that we were able to do so many laps. I’m looking forward to the rest of the week.”
