Red Bull has enjoyed a dream start to Formula 1 testing with its new car and more importantly its first in-house Ford-branded engine, which Isack Hadjar said has exceeded expectations.
Hadjar was quickest on the first day of the closed Barcelona test before four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen took over on Tuesday.
The rain-affected second day limited Verstappen’s running, and he also caused a brief red flag early in the day with a trip through the gravel on his outlap, but Hadjar gave the RB22 a stellar first day on-track with more than 100 laps completed.
Hadjar’s understated summary was that it was a "pretty productive" day but the significance of a strong debut for the Red Bull Ford Powertrains engine was immediately given away when he added: "Surprisingly we managed to do a lot more laps than we expected. Everything went pretty smoothly.
"We had only minor issues. So it’s quite impressive considering it’s our first day with our own engine.
"It was definitely smooth."
Hadjar also described the car’s driveability as "pretty decent" and said – despite the vastly different engine with no MGU-H and a much more powerful MGU-K providing greater electric power delivery – it "doesn’t feel too far off what I’m used to on all the upshifts and downshifts".
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This is not being billed as a real test but it is. Three days of track running is permitted across five and each has great value to every team, not least one that has also become a new engine manufacturer.
Red Bull has been very confident in the new Powertrains company’s capacity to produce a respectable, competitive engine at the first attempt but has played down how likely it is that it can rival the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari straight out of the blocks.
In mileage terms, though, it did exactly that on Monday – with its two teams comparing very well to two from Mercedes and two with Ferrari engines. The RB22 seemed to continue running regularly on Tuesday, too.
Engine mileage on Monday (in km)
To have the engine working so reliably, so quickly, is a good early sign – and follows Racing Bulls giving it a good initial run across 200km of testing at Imola last week.
Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson also completed 88 laps at Barcelona despite an issue on the opening day but this appeared to be after a practice start on the grid and he drove in the afternoon without a problem.
"The main thing is reliability," said Lawson on Monday at Barcelona.
"At the moment, we've done a good amount of laps. And honestly, the only issues we really had today were safety precautions, not really any actual issues.
"So honestly, on the power unit side, it has been very, very good."
Racing Bulls chief race engineer Mattia Spini said the engine is "not perfect" but "we didn’t expect it to be" this early in the programme.
"On the grid we had a niggle, not important," he said. "Just some safety settings that we put in the car just to not damage anything, for precautions and that was what was happening there.
"We just tuned the setting, and the afternoon was perfectly fine."
