F1: What the drivers and teams are saying after first day of testing

Max Verstappen
“I think the car looks good but the most important thing is that it is fast, and that’s what we are trying to see. We wanted to get laps in today to get used to the car and to get a general understanding about how it’s behaving. As well as that, we needed the mileage to see how the parts held up. Everything worked pretty well, so it was a good start and a positive day. Tonight, we will look into things in more detail and see what we need to do to improve. Checo will drive tomorrow, and then I am looking forward to getting back in the RB18 on Friday.”

Oracle Red Bull Racing CEO and Team Principal Christian Horner
“It was a very short off-season, but it’s great to be back at the track and see the number one on the car, it’s been a long time since it’s been on an F1 car and our target this year is to keep it there. We are excited to get this new era of the sport underway and see the car run on track in anger for the first time.
With such a big regulation change it’s even more fascinating this year. We’ve got a great Team and we’re fully motivated coming into this season. Max felt the car was good to drive, so it was a positive first morning. It is going to be a good year for Checo, now he is in his second year with us more familiar with the Team.”

Head of Red Bull Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin
“I’m happy because today went really well for the Team. We gave ourselves the optimistic target of 700km and we finished around three laps short of that, which for the first day of testing is quite unusual. Things went well, we did some tests and we have a good direction for how to improve the car. Max is pleased so far, there are some balance limitations but nothing that makes us think we need to turn things upside down to make the car work.”

Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director:
We got through a lot of work today and both drivers have been able to give us their initial impressions of the W13. Overall the day has been surprisingly straightforward although looking up and down the pitlane, you can see how high the reliability standards are and most teams seemed to be running their programs without issue.

There really is a lot to try and cram into the six days of winter testing when you consider how different the car and the regulations are. Nevertheless, we have made good progress on understanding the aerodynamics and the tires, while at the same time getting nearly 600km under our belts. From a pace point of view it’s too early to say where anyone stands, we’ve also got a few wrinkles to iron out in terms of balance and performance before really trying to put times on the board. However, our overall feeling from today is a good one and we’re looking forward to making more progress tomorrow.

Charles Leclerc #16
“The first day of testing is behind us. This is always a really exciting moment at the start of each season. It was the first time that we could really push in our new car and it felt really good to be back behind the wheel. We completed all the tests we wanted to and ran through our full program smoothly, which is good for a new car. I’m looking forward to being back on track again tomorrow. The initial feeling is not bad, but we shouldn’t get carried away by the timesheets today, as these are early days and everyone is still hiding their true form. It’s impossible to have a clear picture just yet, so we have to stay focused and keep working hard. We put in a lot of laps, more than any other team today, and that’s a positive we will build on”.

Carlos Sainz #55
“Today was the first time I was in the car with a proper run plan, unlike the previous times when we basically did shake downs. We could finally push a bit and start learning from these cars. The timesheet is unimportant at this early stage, but it was very positive to put in a good number of laps and get a real feel at the wheel. We still have a lot of work to do but today we could already start feeling some differences from last year, although in terms of getting used to it I don’t feel it’s going to take too long. For sure the last tenths will be tricky to find, but that is the interesting part! Anyway, that’s not the aim here in Barcelona as we still have more testing ahead of the first race. A good first day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. ”

Valtteri Bottas (Car 77)
“It’s always nice to get back behind the wheel after the winter break, especially with a new car, a new team and a new generation of Formula One cars. I did enjoy my time in the car, even though we had some issues that turned out to be pretty costly in terms of time lost. The important thing, however, is that we were able to understand them completely and we know how to fix them: we may have run out of time to do that today, but we still got some running under our belt and we know how to progress. Now I hope we can get two good days tomorrow and Friday to catch up on the time we lost today and complete our program for the test. My first impression of the car is positive, so far I did not feel massive differences between the old-generation cars and the new ones, definitely not night and day. Of course, one needs to adjust the driving a little bit, but nothing too drastic: still, we have a lot of learning to do and we’re keen to get back to work on track tomorrow.”

Robert Kubica (Car 88)
“It wasn’t the best of mornings as we had a couple of issues that limited our running. The guys did a good job to solve them and it’s nice to see the spirit with which the team faced them, but in the end we lost a big chunk of time. The little running I did feels like an appetizer, but obviously, I wanted more! That’s racing, though, the important thing is that we can recover some ground tomorrow and continue discovering our new baby. The first impressions of the car are positive, but there’s so much more we need to find out.”

Yuki Tsunoda #22
“It’s been a really productive day and a good start to testing for the team. This is the first proper outing in the 2022 car, so everything we’ve done has been super important for our learnings, as obviously this car is completely different to last year. Mileage, and also the changes we were making to the set-up, were key today, and we managed to achieve everything we wanted to. We found a few things that we still need to play with, but we’re happy with how things are going so far. The car has been really reliable today, we needed to get as much data as possible and we’ve managed to do this. We’ve still got five more days of testing to go before the first race, I think currently the car looks quite fast, but we won’t know the true performance of it until Bahrain Qualifying.”

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer for AlphaTauri)
“We have had a very successful first day of testing here in Barcelona. With a brand-new car, tires and regulations it’s important to firstly validate the pre-event sim work, so we spent the morning trialing a large variety of set-up direction and quickly honed in on a set-up that seemed to be a good compromise. That left the afternoon to start completing set-up test items and to better understand the tires. Yuki was happy with the feel of the car, it remained reliable throughout the day, and we had no major issues. We have an extensive test plan for the three days of testing here and then again in Bahrain, to ensure we head to race one well-prepared and in the best shape possible. We’ve had a positive first day following our plan and have already gathered a lot of data, which we will analyze tonight and feed into the test plan for Pierre, who takes over, tomorrow.”

Dave Robson, Williams Head of Vehicle Performance
It’s been a solid day in Barcelona starting to understand the FW44. We had very few problems given how many new concepts there are on the car and both drivers had a good opportunity to complete long runs on several of the Pirelli tire compounds. It is very early days, but we have made a good start and have identified several opportunities to improve the performance of the car.

Alex was immediately comfortable in the car and was on the pace straightaway. He will drive the car again in the morning before Nicholas returns in the afternoon. We are looking forward to another productive day as we continue our preparation for the season ahead.

Nicholas Latifi
The first session back in the car after a few months off is always interesting. You can tell it’s a different design philosophy, especially with the tires, as it was my first time driving the new 18-inch Pirellis. Overall, it feels different and there are a few things that, for me, feel quite positive already compared to last year and there are things that need adjusting. But it is still very early days. This morning’s focus was about understanding the systems and the aero platform sensitivities. It was a good day overall.

Alex Albon
I’m really happy with my first proper session in the FW44 this afternoon. The car felt great and the team here in Barcelona did an incredible job. We got some good mileage in which is really important and a great start to the year. The first days on track are usually spent making sure everything is running smoothly and, because it is, we managed to make a start working on the performance of the car. We only have six days testing before the first race, so to be honing in on performance already is a real positive. I’m looking forward to getting back out tomorrow morning!