Sergio Perez praised the “tremendous job” by Red Bull on the RB19 after finishing fastest at Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The Mexican set an impressive time of 1m30.305s on Saturday, two-tenths faster than Charles Leclerc’s pole position time at the same circuit albeit with the help of slightly softer tyres.
Still, it was a strong benchmark from Red Bull, who head into the new season as clearly the team to beat in 2023.
“The last few days have been pretty intense,” Perez, who completed 133 laps on Day 3, said. “Testing is very short, so it is very important to get the maximum out of it.
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“Testing in Bahrain is very difficult because the track is changing every time you go out, the tarmac is very rough and just in general it’s varying conditions.
“But overall it worked really well, we got a good understanding of our car and I think we did the most we could today.
“We did a lot of analysis on set-up and tyre choice. We ran without any big problems, got a lot of laps in, and had good reliability in general.
“The team back in Milton Keynes have done a tremendous job,” he added. “We have a good car and certainly think we can work on that more.”
Perez comes into the new season with a bit of a chip on his shoulder after starting last year strongly before fading as the season progressed.
Checo believed some of that was due to Red Bull developing the car more towards Max Verstappen’s oversteery style, compared to the more understeery handling that Sergio prefers.
However, the four-time race winner thinks the RB19 will be more neutral, allowing him to be more competitive.
“Yes, certainly. There are things that we are going to work on,” he said on if he expected a stronger 2023.
“We believe that the car is already going to be better. I’ve been pushing the team in a certain direction, and we believe we’re heading in that direction.
“But we’ll see. Once we get the car, it’s all about adapting ourselves to the car and trying to maximise it.”