Max Verstappen: Red Bull seems to have closed the gap on Ferrari

Third force on the board behind the duo Mercedes - Ferrari since the start of the season, Red Bull Racing was counting heavily on the first European event in Barcelona in Catalonia to try to get into the master tandem at the start of the 2017 championship.

The two RB13s of Daniel Ricciardo et Max Verstappen have not yet reversed the hierarchy, positioning themselves twice in 5th and 6th positions this Friday during the free practice sessions, but according to the Dutch driver, the progress seems encouraging, with a gap of two tenths with the SF70H of Hag.

« It seems that we have closed the gap a little against Ferrari, so it's a big positive point, but it also seems that Mercedes has made a good evolution, so they are still quite ahead, admits Verstappen.

We are still the third team, but the changes are taking us in the right direction and we have seen an increase in grip.

We still have a lot of work to do to improve the pace of the car and also the performance of the engine in order to continue to attack. »

No overly optimistic expectations

Daniel Ricciardo, on the other hand, believes that Ferrari has not yet shown all its strengths before Saturday and qualifying. “I see a step forward and we are not too bad against Ferrari, but I am sure they will have even more to offer tomorrow, explains the Australian.

We need to continue to evolve with this new package and understand it completely. We didn't expect to be as fast as Mercedes, but there is some progress and now we have to continue optimizing everything to get even more tenths out of the car.

I think we are on track with our program and tomorrow we will have a better idea of ​​whether or not we have closed the gap to the leaders. »

Pierre Tassel