Marko gloats after first day of testing: 'Other teams didn't expect this'

For Red Bull Racing, the season could not have started better. Of course it is very early in the year, but a first day of testing without any problems and by far the fastest time, put a broad smile on the faces of the Austrian team. External consultant Helmut Marko was one of them.

Max Verstappen ended up completing 143 laps during the test in Bahrain, in which he was no less than 1.1 seconds faster than his closest competitor (in this case Lando Norris). So the RB20's new concept seems to be working, much to Red Bull's delight. "It was very impressive. We did 143 laps without any major problems," Marko told the international media in the paddock. "The concept is working. We can build on this. It all looks good."

When Marko watched the other cars drive during the test, they often reminded him a lot of last season's successful RB19. With that car, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez managed to win all but one Grand Prix. Instead of building on that car, master designer Adrian Newey made aggressive changes. "All the cars now basically look like our car from last year. As a result, they now have something else to mimic. I don't think other teams expected us to come up with something like this in winter," the Austrian said.

So the first impressions of the new Red Bull were positive, even with Max Verstappen, Marko told us. "The first feedback from Max was positive. All the tuning changes we made today worked. The car reacted well. Other than that, it was mainly fine-tuning."