Red Bull is getting closer

After the first of two days of testing in Bahrain, Daniel Ricciardo said that his Red Bull team is slowly but surely improving the car, and that they will be a little closer to the dominant Mercedes in China at the end of this month.

The Australian finished Sunday's race in Bahrain in fourth place, but today he sat back in his car on the same track and passed the first off-season test of this season. Despite a few minor problems, he drove 91 laps and finished the day as the seventh fastest, two and a half seconds behind the best time of the day.

“Today, we focused on a slightly longer series with three different race car settings that served us with positive feedback,” Ricciardo explained. “We lost some time in the morning, but we made up for everything in the afternoon. I sat in the car for quite a few hours.

During the last racing weekend, we had some problems in the first and last free practice due to being served, but today the car was much better in the same conditions, especially during longer sets. We are still a bit behind, but we are slowly eliminating the flaws and shortcomings on the race car. Already during these tests, as well as during the racing weekend in China, we will get a little closer. So far, we are happy with every little thing. We are learning and progressing, ”added Ricciardo.

Andy Damerum, the coordinator of racing engineers, was also very pleased with the test day. “We missed a bit in the morning, but that was just due to the many devices we had to install on the race car. As Daniel drove onto the track, we reworked the crowded to-do list and ticked off almost everything in the 91 laps driven. There are quite a few small things among them that we couldn’t do during the winter testing, and there’s no time for them during the racing weekends, so today was a very precious day for us. After all, we have a very busy day behind us, and tomorrow we will have another one, ”said Damerum.

He will also be testing Ricciardo for Red Bull tomorrow.