Red bull closes the gap on Ferrari
First European Grand Prix and first changes to the single-seaters. Red Bull remains 3rd on the grid. Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo set the 5th and 6th fastest times of the day in the two practice sessions, but they seem to have closed the gap on Ferrari somewhat on this Friday.
On this day, Max Verstappen outpaced his teammate by securing 5th position during both practice sessions. Daniel Ricciardo also occupied the 6th spot twice. But the essential part was elsewhere. It seems that their new aerodynamic package brings them satisfaction in the car’s behavior and allows them to slightly reduce the gap with the Ferraris (they are separated by 2 to 4 tenths).
Max Verstappen FP1 => 5th (1:22.706) / FP2 => 5th (1:21.438)
Last year, Max Verstappen secured the first victory of his career on the Catalonia circuit. He became the youngest driver in history to win a race, at the age of 18. Today, returning to this demanding track for adjustments, he was pleased with his day and the progress made, even though he remains realistic about the established hierarchy and the advantage maintained by Mercedes.
« It seems that we have somewhat closed the gap on the Ferraris, so that is very positive. But the Mercedes have also made good improvements, so they are still quite far ahead. We are still the third team, but the changes are taking us in the right direction, and we have found a little more grip (…). »
Regarding today’s tests, Max Verstappen mentioned a factor that was significant: the wind. There was a lot of unexpected wind, which caused some problems. I was flat out in turn 9 and suddenly a gust of wind pushed the rear out and forced me to go off the track and continue in the gravel. Fortunately, there was no damage.
He continues about this windy day and its impact: « I saw several drivers being swept away by the wind. The circuit is always relatively hard on the tires. The last sector is usually tricky, but the added wind certainly didn’t help. »
Feeling positive about the upgraded RB13! More grip 👊🏼 We are always looking for more pace, so we’ll keep pushing #SpanishGP 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/Klyv1lmLPk
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) 12 mai 2017
Daniel Ricciardo FP1 => 6th (1:23.084) / FP2 => 6th (1:21.585)
For his part as well, Daniel Ricciardo follows the same line of thought as his teammate. He has seen an improvement in the behavior of his car, especially with the softest tires.
There were moments today when the car behaved quite well, but at other times we were still trying to find our way with the new package. The car started to come alive with the soft tires this afternoon, which was good, but with the harder ones we still have improvements to find.
But the native of Perth remains a little more reserved about the gap that separates them from Ferrari in particular: « I could see a step forward and we weren’t too bad compared to the Ferraris but I’m sure they will also have more to bring tomorrow. »
For the Australian, the indicator of everyone’s performance (thanks to the improvements made) will be tomorrow, Saturday. It’s at that point that they will know if Red Bull has managed to close the gap with the leaders: « We didn’t expect to be as fast as the Mercedes here, but we feel we have made some progress. Now we just need to continue fine-tuning everything to manage to gain a few tenths. I think we are aligned with what we had planned. Tomorrow we will have a better idea if we have closed the gap with the leaders. » he concludes.
Some steps forward in practice. We’ll try and find a bit more overnight #SpanishGP🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/F8c9TV5DBp
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) 12 mai 2017
