Could Red Bull Racing finally be able to challenge for wins from the start of the season in the V6 era? Time will tell, but it was an extremely encouraging three days for the four-time Constructors’ Champions. 

Max Verstappen banged in the fastest lap of testing during the final hour of the last day; his 1:28.960 on C4s was just under a tenth of a second quicker than AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda best time. 

Heading into his seventh season in Formula One, the ten-time Grand Prix winner admitted to the media that he thinks 2021 pre-season testing has been the best one for him so far. However, the 23-year-old is fully aware that the true pecking order will only be revealed at the Bahrain Grand Prix in just under two weeks.  

"Yeah, definitely I think it has been the best, but it doesn't give you any guarantees. We'll find out through the first race weekend where we are." 

"We always look in to what we can improve," Verstappen added. "For sure there are some things we want to work on. But I guess every team has that." 

Last year’s Red Bull was on the knife-edge in terms of balance, even if the Dutchman managed to drive around that superbly. Verstappen has been happy with the stability of his new package during testing.  

"You know you will lose a bit of downforce on the car with this floor, but so far, it's been quite stable. 

Sergio Perez logged 166 laps during his day and a half in the RB16B. The learning process with his new team continues as he gets ready for his first race in Red Bull colours in 13 days' time. The 31-year-old clocked the 8th fastest time on the final day of pre-season testing. 

Checo is excited for the season to start and wants to take things step by step. 

“It’s crazy to think that pre-season has already finished, it feels like it only just started. I think this is the shortest pre-season ever in my career! There’s a very limited amount of running and testing but we managed to work through a lot of set-up options and are improving every time we get into the car.  

"I’m very excited about the season and I think we’ve got a good car underneath us but I still have a lot to learn in the car to get the maximum out of it. The Team is doing a fantastic job. It doesn’t really matter where we start in Bahrain, it matters where we finish in Abu Dhabi. Now we just want to look forward to the race weekend. We’re going to take it step by step and be patient in the beginning and then things will come to us.” 

Perez told the media he believes that he needs a few races with the team before he can start to extract the maximum from the car.  

‘’After five races, once we go through very different races, different conditions, you understand the car, the team, a lot better. Five races, proper races, should be good.” 

https://www.motorlat.com/notas/f1/19238/f1-bahrain-testing-verstappen-s-predictable-rb16b-is-nice-to-drive