Red Bull car feels "more connected" compared to 2019 challenger says Verstappen

Max Verstappen piled up the lap count on the new Aston Martin Red Bull Racing car during the first week of testing. Having had plenty of time in the car, Verstappen can now make a comparison between the new car and the old RB15 as well as the winter simulator.

The Dutchman insists the new car feels "more connected". He's also pleased to feel little difference between his winter driving on the simulator and the real running around the circuit in Barcelona.

“It feels good. But we’ve done already a lot of laps on the simulator as well where I got used to it. There were no real surprises when I jumped in the car. I think overall it feels just a bit more connected [compared to 2019]. But that was also the target. There was no real surprise there," Verstappen told Crash.net.

Over the last few years, Red Bull Racing have developed well through the season. Ultimately, they create a package that can compete on every track. But Christian Horner and his team want to hit the ground running and have a strong front-runner from lights out in Australia. Verstappen confirms the continuation of development.

"I think towards the end of the season we were working towards that and already last year testing some ideas for this year so it was what we targeted already from the wind tunnel," Verstappen added.