Helmut Marko: It looks like the new car has become a step forward

      Helmut Marko, Red Bull's motorsport consultant, said that Max Verstappen had a positive first impression of the new RB21 car after the first day of pre-season testing.

      "It's too early to talk about the balance of power, but I can say that Max has very good speed on a long series of laps, and he thinks he feels better about the new car than last year," Helmut Marko said on German Sky. – In addition, the RB21 behaves more predictably. Those were our weaknesses in 2024, so it looks like we've taken a step forward."

      Commenting on the pause in testing due to a power outage on the track, Marko said: "Nothing was working, including the safety equipment on the track, such as radio communication between the marshals and the control center, so we had to wait. We only have three days to test the new car, so every hour counts.

      This year, everything is a little different. We thought Bahrain would be warm and nice to test, but it turned out to be colder here than in Europe, and it started raining."