Max Verstappen reserved his judgement on Red Bull’s new RB18 after his first run in the car behind closed doors at Silverstone last week.
Red Bull presented a show car at their livery launch two weeks ago. The RB18 was seen in public for the first time today in pre-season testing.But the car ran for the first time at Silverstone last Thursday. Like many of their rivals, Red Bull used one of its filming days to conduct a shakedown test of its new car.
“We managed to get it running and your first impressions, which I think always very important” said Verstappen. “But the car looks good. The rules are very different this year with the cars so it’s nice to get your first few laps and get a feel.”
All ten F1 teams have produced cars to radically new technical regulations for the upcoming season. The new world champion said he didn’t have any immediate impression of the changes.
“I don’t have anything yet, I just want to rock up to the track and try to do the best I can like every single year,” he said. “And then if the car is quick then I’m sure we can do a very good job again.”
Sergio Perez, who is going into his second year at the team, praised the effort Red Bull had put into the RB18.
“You can straight away see the amount of work that is behind the car, the amount of hours our people in the factory have done,” he said. “I’m confident. I really hope that the car is quick straight away.”
“I think the key to it will be the rate that we can do through this season, that will be the massive impact,” he added. “You could really see with the different cars the way some of the teams have interpreted the rules. It will be interesting come the first race to see which concept of car is the best.”
Verstappen is driving the car again in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya today. Perez is due to take over tomorrow.
Pictures: Red Bull RB18 filming day
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hahostolze (@hahostolze)
23rd February 2022, 10:49
A, Dutch literalism. Almost Cruyffian. There’s a reason Verstappen is a racing driver, not a philosopher.
Qeki (@qeki)
23rd February 2022, 12:01
“if I’m turning left at a right hand corner then I’m not going right.”
Aapje (@aapje)
23rd February 2022, 13:51
@hahostolze @qeki
I read it differently from you two. To me, he seems to be implying that he’s quick himself, so with a good car he can compete for the win.
A quick car is not a guarantee for a good run, if the driver is not up to par
Moi
23rd February 2022, 14:47
@hahostolze Nonono, Cruijff never just stated the obvious.
For it to be Cruijffian, it would need some sort of additional twist, like “it doesn’t matter if the car is fast or slow, as long as the other cars are either slower or not as fast”.
MacLeod (@macleod)
24th February 2022, 7:50
Lol, your correct! Moi
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd February 2022, 11:07
Built up and completed right in time, I guess. Let’s see how it goes in the next months.
Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
23rd February 2022, 11:08
That front-wing sponsorship and the ‘Oracle’ on the sidepod look absolutely hideous. I mean, that must mean they didn’t give a single hoot about how it would look and only cared about performance (which you might expect), but still.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
23rd February 2022, 11:40
@barryfromdownunder It’s still better than the rear wing, where the text is only on the lower element of the wing, but because of its shape you could only read it if the car was photographed from above. (same sponsor as on the front wing)
Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
23rd February 2022, 11:48
Holy…I didn’t even notice that!
I thought they were driving around with a plain-wing but now that I look more closely, I can see what you mean. That’s got to be a mistake right? No way a company pays millions to have their logo not visible unless looked at from an obscene angle!
petebaldwin (@)
23rd February 2022, 12:56
There’s a few weird ones this year. Mercedes’ have TeamViewer on their engine cover and you can hardly read it as it’s amongst a bunch of Mercedes “stars” that are the same colour.
tielemst
23rd February 2022, 13:24
On the other hand, everybody’s curious what company was supposed to be there. Talk about exposure.
Nitin (@nguru)
23rd February 2022, 12:08
But without Masi around … would the ‘job be done’ ???
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd February 2022, 13:42
Masi on average hasn’t favoured red bull more than he did mercedes, he just hasn’t been very competent overall.
Noframingplease (@)
23rd February 2022, 15:11
Here we go again: the lewisfan with midterm memory loss. Don’t you reminder the first half of the season lewis and MB had many luck with masi’s decisions and the FIA did a lot of investigation (and changed even rules) after the whining and framing from toto and lewis. No, of course not. It’s all about the last race according the lewis fans. Get out of you bubble, …. and be prepared that ‘your man’ and mercedes aren’t so popular in (for example) Germany.