Max Verstappen confirmed Red Bull's bold new concept works, as he suggested in his post-testing interview that he "could not hope for a better test."
All F1 teams concluded the last three days of pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit last Friday, and the initial reactions from many of the drivers and other team members regarding predictions of the pecking order are pretty telling.
While some teams, like McLaren, suggested they encountered a few issues throughout the three days, everyone in Red Bull seemed to be in a very positive mood.
The team took a risk with their brave new design, and though we haven't even reached the first race of the season, it seems it was the right step to make for the team from Milton Keynes.
Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko suggested the team expects to have a pace advantage of about three tenths per lap over their rivals, and Max Verstappen asserted he was happy with how the car behaves.
Last season, we saw that pairing of the Dutchman and the fastest car on the grid was deadly for all of Red Bull's rivals. So now that they hear everything has been working out very well for Red Bull, everyone is starting to lose their hopes for a championship battle.
Discussing the previous three days after the last session of the pre-season testing in Bahrain, Red Bull's triple World Champion told the media:
"I am happy with the overall lap times, now we must analyse the data and come up with a plan for the coming race weekend. I am looking forward to next week."
On the one hand, Verstappen suggested some unexpected circumstances might still arise. On the other hand, he confirmed that the team from Milton Keynes is probably in the best spot ahead of the first race of the season, as he added:
"There will always be a couple of little surprises during a race weekend, and when you go to the limit, you will always find out more about the car, but we could not hope for a better test."