Red Bull ‘got the answers we needed to’ after first day of 2024 testing for Verstappen

Max Verstappen and Red Bull made the headlines as pre-season testing got under way for 2024, comfortably topping both of Wednesday’s initial sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Racking up more than two race distances in the Sakhir desert, Verstappen also led the combined timesheets by just over a second with his benchmark of 1m 31.344s – albeit the 10 teams running a variety of different programmes.

READ MORE: Verstappen stays on top in Bahrain as first day of pre-season testing concludes

Giving his first impressions of the RB20, Verstappen said: “It feels good to be back in an F1 car again and I had fun out on track today. We covered a lot of laps and tried quite a few things with the car, which was important, so happy overall with how it went.

“After the winter break, the first few laps always surprise you a little but then you get back into the swing of things pretty quickly. Overall, the car was responding well and considering this was only testing we had a nice day.

“Looking to tomorrow, we are speaking to our engineers about what the plans will be, but I am looking forward to getting into the car in the afternoon.”

POLL: Which team impressed you the most after Day 1 of pre-season testing?

Gianpiero Lambiase, Head of Race Engineering at Red Bull, also revealed how the burning questions the team had about their new package were answered over the first day of running.

“The winter break was fairly short this year but, nonetheless, the amount of work which has gone into the car has been impressive as usual,” he commented.

“We came to Bahrain with a few unknowns around a relatively new car, but we have tested most of the fundamentals on day one and got the answers we needed to.

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“Now we have a solid base to take onto days two and three, when Checo [Sergio Perez] takes over the car in the morning.”