Max Verstappen left Silverstone with a smile on his face after completing a shakedown of the Red Bull RB15 on Wednesday.
The Dutchman had the privilege of debuting Red Bull’s first Honda-powered machine, which also sported a special one-off striped livery to mark the occasion.
And with first impressions usually counting for a lot, everyone was anxious to hear what Verstappen had to say after returning to the garage.
“The day is done with the first few kilometres in the car,” he began. “After my first run I was smiling, very happy with how the car was behaving, plus the engine as well.
“So very positive and a very nice group of people [from Honda] to work with.”
Of course, it is the performance of the Japanese engine that is expected to determine whether Red Bull has a realistic chance of battling Mercedes and Ferrari in 2019, therefore, Verstappen’s early praise will certainly be welcome.
“I just can’t wait to get started now in Barcelona and start working towards Melbourne,” Max continued. “It was a very positive day and I’m very happy about it.”
The 21-year-old also spoke of the importance of completing an initial shakedown with the new car.
“Of course it was only a filming day, so there’s a limited amount you can get out of it, but it’s really important to have a day like this before you go to the official tests,” he said.
“You get a first impression and you see if there any little issues with the car or engine. Luckily we didn’t have any and it’s very positive that we had this opportunity.
“Now we can go testing properly, we’ll see what we can get out of that and we’ll be able to understand the car and the engine a bit better. But so far, so good.”