Red Bull able to gauge reliability: 'We are in a good place'

For Red Bull Racing, the first day of testing in Bahrain went well. Sergio Perez drove the most miles of the day with 138 laps, so in terms of reliability things are looking good. The team looks back on a successful day in which a lot of work was done.

"We had a good day today, in one day we did the amount of mileage we would usually carry out across an entire race weekend. That means being able to gauge the reliability of parts across the race weekend in one day and we are in a good place. A few things fell away here and there, but there was no massive time lost in the garage due to big issues," said Guillaume Rocquelin, Head of Race Engineering at Red Bull, in an official press release.

Apart from a small leak under the hood and a red flag caused by Perez, the team experienced a smooth first day in Bahrain. The red flag wasn't serious either, as the Mexican was stranded in the gravel due to a spin, preventing him from getting away.

Red Bull sees improvements

On Friday, Max Verstappen will get behind the wheel of the RB18. The team will focus mainly on long runs. Perez finished the first day tenth on the timesheet, but Red Bull is not concerned with speed. During the test days it is mainly about the reliability of the car, and not the fastest lap times.

"We were not focused on pace today and we ran a programme we felt would be useful to learn from, so we’re really pleased that we managed to get through so much work. As we have ticked the box of race distance today, it may not be as critical tomorrow, so we will still do fairly long runs but maybe not with pit stops. Every day we are learning more and getting better," Rocquelin added.