Red Bull’s Max Verstappen may have caused major concern among the nine other teams competing this weekend after his ominous update on the RB19.
The first media day of the 2023 season has begun in Bahrain with all ten teams – and 20 drivers – descending on the Bahrain International Circuit.
Drivers and team principals are being probed by the media to get an understanding of where each outfit is mentally ahead of the first competitive round this Sunday.
Red Bull seem to be favourites to take the win this weekend after consistently storming to the top of the timesheets during preseason testing with their new and improved RB19.
Reigning World Champion, Max Verstappen, was speaking with reporters on Thursday afternoon and gave a major update on the car that may raise concerns among other teams.
While everybody is raring to know what areas of the Red Bull car have been enhanced for their third title bid with Verstappen, the Dutch driver simply let viewers of the conference know that “everything” has been improved.
Speaking about preseason testing, he said: “I mean we had three really good days. I think also just in general the progress we made over the winter was very good.
We have to of course show it this weekend. But not just this weekend of course, from there we need to develop and every track is also a bit different in terms of behaviour of the car, but yeah the test days were good for us”.
Verstappen was then asked ‘where is this car better than last year’s?’ to which he responded: “Eh… everywhere”.
Elaborating on his point he said: “That’s the point, I mean you always try to improve it. It feels nice and well-balanced. But of course, every team lost a bit of performance with the floor, but you always try to gain that back in a way. So you have to find a bit of a new balance with the car but it’s been good”.
Speaking about the main threats faced this season by Red Bull, he added: “The teams close to us, but also I think at the end of the day, from ourselves too because we have to stay on top of things and we cannot afford to make too many mistakes.
“I mean we’re not robots, everyone makes mistakes but you try to minimise it”.
Spectators will get a first glimpse of the Red Bull in action tomorrow morning at 11:30 am as FP1 gets underway. FP2 is expected to begin later in the afternoon, at around 3:00 pm.
Here’s the full 2023 race calendar from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi as the season start approaches
