Honda happy with Red Bull: 'That gave us a lot of data'

Red Bull Racing had to work hard during the first day of the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix to familiarise themselves with the new circuit. However, thanks to the efforts of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, the Austrian team was able to prepare for Saturday's qualifying session to the satisfaction of Toyoharu Tanabe.

Verstappen was unable to set a faster time than Hamilton on Friday, but the Dutchman left a good impression. Perez had a tougher time and didn't make it past the mid-table. According to Tanabe, the performance of both drivers was very important.

The technical director of Honda Formula 1 spoke with AS-Web satisfied with the first day of racing. "The session went smoothly throughout the day," he stressed. "Both the two teams and the four cars finished the session smoothly, which gave us a lot of data on both the engine and the chassis," he also pointed to AlphaTauri.

However, Tanabe believes it is important to keep improving the cars. "It's only the end of the first day, but it's a good result. Tonight we will analyse the data from this session and see how we can maximise the performance gains for qualifying and the real race on Sunday."