Red Bull took more risk on fifth test day: 'Fast without really trying'

Max Verstappen took the fifth F1 test day for himself at Red Bull Racing. For the Dutchman it was his first laps in Bahrain. It was an atypical day, with the team spending a lot of time in the garage. Nevertheless, Guillaume Rocquelin seems very satisfied.

The Dutchman ended up in third place with a total of 86 laps. It is a lot less laps than was possible during the previous test days, because it was a somewhat atypical day. The team often had to go into the pit lane to make adjustments and also the red flags reduced track time. Red Bull Racing says in a press statement that they had hoped for a more punctual session today, to go deeper into the optimization of the RB18. Still, the day didn't fall apart.

Very positive developments at Red Bull

The Chief Race Engineering at the team, Rocquelin, reports, "It was more of a stop-and-start day for us, as planned. Yesterday we drove more consistently, so today we could focus on other things. We spent more time in the garage making changes and also taking more risks." So for Red Bull, it was a small stroke of luck that the red flags fell today instead of yesterday. Little precious time was lost at the Austrian racing stable.

Rocquelin concludes positively, "We learned a lot and gathered a lot of information. I am happy with what we have discovered. We are developing in different directions and it is all very positive. We were even fairly competitive at the end without really trying." Verstappen himself was also positive after his test day, although like all other drivers he too does not want to get ahead of himself yet.