Video/Photo: Verstappen, Perez & Albon reflect after RB15 & RB16B run

Darshan Chokhani

4 years ago

Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Alexander Albon, F1

Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Alexander Albon were all in action at Silverstone for Red Bull F1 filming day, driving the RB15 and RB16B.

After Perez had his go in the RB15 on Tuesday at Silverstone, it was the turn of Verstappen and Albon on Wednesday at Silverstone, as Red Bull continued its filming run. The day had Christian Horner, Adrian Newey and Toyoharu Tanabe present too to oversee.

While Verstappen drove the RB15 in the morning, Albon took over in the afternoon. The Thai racer had an extensive run in the car as he starts his development role. He also spoke with the Dutchman and Perez, who drove the 2021 F1 car, the RB16B.

Even though the RB16B run was only for 100 km between Verstappen and Perez on demonstration tyres, it was still good run for them to share their knowledge with Albon, who will take it to the engineers at the Milton Keynes base and work on it.

Much like how AlphaTauri hid its filming run with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda at Imola in the AT02 – where the car had a different nose to what was shown in the release pictures – Red Bull did not share any photos and or video of the RB16B run, as well.

They shared some GIFs but it isn’t clear if it was the RB16B. “I started with the RB15 to just get a few laps in after the winter break and then I jumped into the RB16B,” said Verstappen after his run. “Days like today are all about getting comfortable with the car and with the new power unit, trying to make things run smoothly and trying to be well prepared before we go testing in Bahrain.

“It’s always good to be back driving a Formula One car and the first time you go out of the pits is such a great feeling.” At the same time, his new teammate Perez continued to realise his dream of driving a Red Bull car. “Driving a new car is always special – for the driver and also for the Team.

“They have been working so hard through the winter, so to finally take the car on track, it’s quite an emotional day. I can say I think there is a lot of potential. The conditions were not great but it was nice to get a feeling for the car. It’s pretty exciting. Earlier this week I drove the RB15 but today I could feel a step in overall grip and top speed.”

Helping both Verstappen and Perez all-through 2021 F1 season will be Albon, who felt positive about his day too. “Being back at Silverstone is great and any day you get to drive a Formula One car is a good day and it was mega to get behind the wheel of the RB15 again to keep my eye in,” said the Thai racer.

“On my side, today was about understanding the personality of the RB16B, talking to Max, Checo, the engineers and getting their feedback so I can take it back to the factory where I’ll be doing a lot of work to help with development, especially now so that we can hit the ground running in Bahrain.”

To sum it off, Horner added: “It’s always great to see a new car hit the track for the first time and to see the drivers get their first laps in. Today is for filming but allows us to make sure all the basics are functioning well before it all gets packed up and sent out to Bahrain and in that regard today was a success. It was good also to have Alex here driving the RB15 along with Max. It’s important for Alex to stay sharp as he’s going to play a crucial role in the development of RB16B.”