Over the past three days, Red Bull Racing has been actively engaged in pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, focusing on evaluating the performance and reliability of their RB21 car ahead of the 2025 Formula 1 season opener in Melbourne.
On the second day of testing, rookie Liam Lawson took the wheel for a full day of running. Despite encountering challenges such as rare rain showers and a water pressure issue that temporarily halted their programme, Lawson managed to complete 91 laps.
Verstappen got behind the wheel
Max Verstappen provided his assessment of the Red Bull RB21’s performance after day 3 of pre-season testing.
He described the day’s progress as satisfactory, acknowledging minor issues but emphasising the substantial completion of their testing objectives.
Verstappen stated:
“I think we had a decent day today, there were a few little problems but overall, we completed quite a bit of what we wanted to do. I think it wasn’t bad but at the same time there is still a bit of work to do.”
He also highlighted the team’s focus on continuous improvement as they prepare for the Australian Grand Prix:
“However, it is what we expected and we will keep on working and keep on trying to improve and hopefully, as we go into Melbourne, we will learn a bit more by going through all the data and see where we are at.”
Regarding the competitive landscape, Verstappen commented on the difficulty of gauging other teams’ performance levels during testing besides Red Bull:
“It is difficult to tell where everyone’s pace is, so there is still a bit of work to do for us. We are looking forward to starting racing properly again in Australia.”
The engineering side of F1 Testing
Pierre Wache, Technical Director at Red Bull Racing, provided additional insights into the F1 testing sessions. He acknowledged that the sessions were not as seamless as anticipated but stressed the value of identifying and addressing issues prior to the season’s commencement:
“It was not as smooth a test as we expected and the Team expected, but it is better to find some problems here than later down the line and it is why we are here, to understand the car.”
Wache also noted the impact of unrepresentative weather conditions on their testing programme:
“The weather was not with us and not very representative of this track, but we tried to explore the potential of the car and tried to understand how it responds to different set-ups, and I think we more or less achieved that.”
Looking ahead to the season opener, Wache expressed cautious optimism, recognising the need for further development at Red Bull:
“I think it’s very difficult to see a starting order for Melbourne across the grid right now, you see that four teams look quite quick, including us, but we didn’t look too much at other teams, we tried to focus on our programme.
“I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times, but it is going in the right direction, just maybe the magnitude of the direction was not as big as we expected and it’s something we need to work on for the first race and future development.”
As the team analyses the data collected during these sessions, their focus remains on refining the RB21’s performance to ensure competitiveness in the forthcoming F1 season.
