Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen is not hugely concerned with the laps he missed on the final F1 2019 test day at Barcelona due to gearbox issue.
Following the crash for teammate Pierre Gasly – which he admitted as his mistake – on the penultimate F1 2019 test day at Circuit de Catalunya, Red Bull managed to fix up the RB15 as Verstappen headed out for his final day before the Australian GP.
However, the Dutchman could only do 29 laps when a gearbox issue halted his proceedings. Despite the efforts from Red Bull to fix up the issue, the team couldn’t due to parts shortage with Verstappen’s day coming to an end pretty early.
Even with the laps lost, Verstappen has managed to undertake 394 in all of the four days he got, while teammate Gasly did more with 439 to his name. But it is not overly concerning for the Dutchman as he feels ready for the Melbourne race.
“We had a gearbox issue and the guys did an amazing job to turn the car around after yesterday and get out there but unfortunately, we were a bit limited with the parts we had, so we couldn’t get out,” said Verstappen to media including FormulaRapida.net.
“In general, we had a really strong winter test [this year]. We did a lot of laps and I have been doing over 100 laps [mostly], so I can be happy with that. If we look at the longer runs, it looks pretty promising.
“I am looking forward to start racing now, I think we have a pretty good package and also the engine seems to work really well, so I am very happy about that.” When asked about the crashes for Gasly, the Dutchman said he did not see any issues with the car.
“From my side, it [the car] is really comfortable [to drive],” he said. “[In fact] it is better than last year. I didn’t really have moments except the one I had in Turn 13, but general I have felt really good from the start.”
Talking about the fight against Mercedes and Ferrari in the 2019 F1 season and the quick laps they manage to eke out, Verstappen was optimistic about his chances during the season with the Honda unit, even though he couldn’t get a fast lap done.
“It is difficult to say [where we are] having not done a run like that but I am not too worried about it,” he said. “For sure, they are very quick but I am happy with what we have done and the long run pace that we have is promising.”
Here’s how they did in the first Barcelona test