Verstappen tested old car ahead of Spain, here's why

Although the test was secret on paper, Red Bull chiefs did speak openly about it. Red Bull Racing chief engineer Paul Monaghan explained why they chose to give Verstappen some test miles in a dated car. "We really tried to give Max a reference from a previous car. When you're trying to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a current car, his reference is the current car. And you might say, 'Oh, well, in previous years we've had this, we've had that.' Have we really? Because we haven't run them at the same time. So in taking that car out, we tried to give Max a reference. To judge him from. He's been able to give us feedback from that. And that's what we did."

Test to better understand problems at Red Bull

Monaghan does somewhat downplay the effect of the test. "The feedback we got hasn't really changed. We just give him a different reference. The strengths and weaknesses of the cars are how we perceive it. We can obviously judge relative to our position."

Finally, Monaghan hopes this test can lead to a new impetus. "But we blend that with his comments and Checo's comments and we say, 'OK, are we good? Are we bad? Look in the data, and see if it's valid to say we're better or worse than other people."

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy