With just three days of pre-season testing available, the process of exploring the potential of the RB19 and getting Max and Checo comfortable and confident at the wheel of the new car was a real case of hitting the ground running – and continuing to run as long as possible.
That much was evident from the moment Max steered the RB19 out of the garage at the Sakhir Circuit.
The Team developed the run plans for testing based on the feeling, from the drivers and engineers, that swapping over in the middle of the day interrupts the flow of the day, breaking things up just as you’re getting into a groove.
Commenting on his testing programme, driver Max Verstappen said:
“I’m feeling nice and relaxed heading into the 2023 season. I had a good break and prepared well this year.
“Time is so limited at testing so hopefully we have some solid days without too many issues, it’s important to have smooth sessions. The Team have worked hard over the winter and I hope the RB19 is another good car to challenge up at the front with but time will tell.
Day One
Max was at the wheel of the new car for the both sessions on day one and the defending Champion didn’t waste a moment of the nine and half hours (minus the lunch break) on offer.
With the RB19 proving reliable, Max churned through a whopping 157 laps in Sakhir, getting through 850 kilometres, or just over 520 miles, which is like driving from the Oracle Red Bull Racing Factory in Milton Keynes to Inverness at the top of Scotland in a day, at full tilt in an F1 car all while constantly telling your friends how the car feels on the road.
Max wasn’t fazed by the workload, however, and after his marathon stint the Dutchman simply said: “We had a good day, we completed a lot of laps which is what we wanted – almost three Grand Prix’s worth.”
The Dutchman also ended up with the day’s best time – a 1:32.837 set on the C3 compound tyre. While that compound is from right in the middle of Pirelli’s range, it’s been designated as the soft tyre for next weekend’s race, as Bahrain International Circuit has a hugely abrasive surface.
Max’s best time put him around three hundredths of a second ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and while test times are notoriously difficult to read anything into – given different fuel loads, run plans, track temperature – it’s never bad to sit at the top of the timesheet at the end of a day.
Day Two
Checo’s chance to try out the RB19 came first thing on Friday morning as Max continued to rest following his long first day of testing. Our Mexican racer spent his first hours in the RB19 working through some longer runs, with Gianpiero Lambiase saying that Checo’s time was focused “on stabilised running, signing off multiple critical procedural and systems checks.”
Discussing his testing weekend, driver Sergio Perez said: “The last few days have been pretty intense, testing is very short, so it is very important to get the maximum out of it but overall, it worked really well; we got a good understanding of our car.
“Testing in Bahrain is very difficult because the track is changing every time you go out, the tarmac is very rough and just in general it’s varying conditions. I think we did the most we could today, we did a lot of analysis on set-up and tyre choice. We ran without any big problems, got a lot of laps in, and had good reliability in general.
“The Team back in Milton Keynes have done a tremendous job, we have a good paced car and certainly think we can work on that more. We will only find out next week where we really are in terms of pace because over testing, we don’t get to see the full picture.”
Max was back in the car in the afternoon of day two and while he lost some track time due to a “small teething issue”, the Dutchman’s final four hours of preparation ahead of the first race were productive and he comfortably ran to P2 on the timesheet, setting a time of 1:33.751, again on C3 tyres, as Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu went two steps softer to claim P1 four hundredths of a second ahead of the champion.
Day Three
And so to the final day of testing, and this time it was Checo’s turn to get a full day at the wheel. Much like Max, he didn’t squander the opportunity. As he had done on Friday, the Mexican used the morning running, in the highest temperatures of the day, to focus on longer runs and to get through a range of test items to provide the Team with the maximum amount of data to analyse in the build-up to next week’s race.
In the afternoon, though, Checo was let off the leash and after bolting on a set of C4 compound Pirelli tyres he vaulted to the top of the order with a lap of 1:30.616. Lewis Hamilton got close to that, just 0.048s behind the Mexican, but the Mercedes driver was using the softer C5 tyres.
In the final hour, Pérez put clear water between himself and his rivals with a lap of 1:30.305, again on the C4, to boost his lead to 0.359s. Job done.
Commenting on the test, Gianpiero Lambiase, Head of Race Engineering said:
“A very successful end to the test with another day of uninterrupted running. Checo was able to complete a variety of test items, including a chance to get a feel for the car under conditions closer to Qualifying and the Race, which was important for his preparation.
“The start of the season is now upon us, and we have just a handful of days to analyse all of the data collected. It has been a positive three days for the team, but there are always areas for improvement, and the focus will be on trying to extract more performance gains before next week.”
It can’t come soon enough.