Max Verstappen says mileage is more important to Red Bull than outright pace at this stage of Formula 1 pre-season testing, as he sampled the RB13 for the first time on Tuesday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Red Bull encountered a couple of issues on Monday, with Daniel Ricciardo stopping on track due to an engine sensor problem, before a battery issue hindered further progress, with 50 laps completed overall.
Verstappen took over from Ricciardo at the venue of his maiden Grand Prix victory and finished third, 1.2s behind pace-setter Kimi Räikkönen, but pointed to the 89 laps he amassed through the course of the day as more important than his time.
“For us at the moment it’s not about showing how quick we can be,” he explained to reporters.
“It’s the first test week, the second day, so I think it’s much more important to get the mileage and see that all the parts are OK.
“We’ll see in the next few days how fast we are.
When asked where he thought Red Bull stood in relation to Mercedes and Ferrari, Verstappen replied, “it’s too early to really compare.”
“They do their programme, we do our programme, and we’ll see later in the test how good they are.
“We’re not focused on lap times, it’s way too early. Everybody is doing their own programmes and you don’t really know where you are. But we can be happy with the day.”
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