Max Verstappen is assured Crimson Bull have made progress with their new Method 1 automotive after the difficulties they encountered in some races final 12 months.
The reigning world champion coated 400 kilometres within the new RB21 yesterday and is because of spend a full day in it tomorrow. He described his preliminary impressions as constructive.
“To this point I’ve executed half a day, however I loved the driving bit,” he mentioned. “The automotive was fairly first rate to drive, to be trustworthy.
“When it comes to tempo, it’s all the time troublesome to say, however I loved it, I assume that’s an important a part of it. It was a bit extra predictable.”
Crimson Bull started final season in sturdy form: Verstappen received the primary race in Bahrain with 25 seconds in hand over his nearest rival from one other workforce. The workforce’s efficiency started to dip round mid-season.
“This time final 12 months round right here, it wasn’t that unhealthy,” he mentioned. “However I do assume that the workforce discovered loads from final 12 months so now we simply attempt to tackle that from final 12 months and see the way it goes once we go to Australia.”
The workforce received 9 races final 12 months, greater than any of their rivals, however didn’t proceed their run of constructors’ championship successes. Though Verstappen received the drivers’ title, his workforce mate Sergio Perez completed eighth and scored simply one-quarter of the Crimson Bull’s factors complete.
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Verstappen turned annoyed along with his automotive’s efficiency at some rounds, whereas Crimson Bull went 10 grands prix with out scoring a win at one stage. In comparison with the difficulties he encountered then, he’s positive their new automotive will probably be an enchancment.
“It may well’t be worse than final 12 months,” he mentioned. “I feel the course that we’re working in is sweet so we simply must comply with that and see how a lot we are able to extract out of that.
“However in the mean time it’s actually early days, there’s quite a lot of issues that we’re nonetheless discussing and wanting to enhance. However yesterday I loved it and that’s already an enormous distinction to final 12 months.”
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