Race engineer Verstappen: 'Only four hours left before his season starts'

After positive words from Christian Horner, Helmut Marko and Verstappen himself, Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase joins that list. Thus, he says in a Red Bull press statement, "Today was a promising start to the 2023 season as we were able to complete the planned program without major reliability concerns."

RB19 had good balance right away

Red Bull's winter work seems almost perfect. According to Lambiase, the car immediately had good balance when coming onto the track. The team therefore had time to focus on the new aerodynamic and mechanical configurations.

Lambiase: "There’s plenty of data analysis to do this evening, and then we look forward to Checo experiencing his first taste of the RB19 tomorrow. For Max, he has just four hours remaining before his season kicks off, so he needs to recover well overnight." After the 157 laps equivalent to almost three race distances, Verstappen will indeed need his rest.