Esteban Ocon declared himself massively impressed with the level of grip of his new Renault R.S.20 after his opening run in Barcelona, insisting that F1's 2020 cars are already quicker than last years' contenders.
Ocon is back in the saddle after a year on the sidelines, although the Frenchman was kept busy all year in his capacity as a Mercedes simulator driver, but also sampling Renault's 2019 car at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi.
But Ocon's return to the cockpit on the opening day of pre-season testing in Barcelona has left the 23-year-old with the impression that F1 has made a step forward in terms of performance despite the sport's regulation status quo.
"I think if you take in account the fastest lap time, we're already faster than the fastest lap time of last year first day," said Ocon.
"So I think the cars are just evolving year-by-year. It's hard to compare, but the amount of grip I feel now I think I've never felt it before.
"I don't know if it's the track, but I drove on Monday in the filming day. And yeah, it's impressive, those new cars, I have to say.
"I've never went that fast in some corners before, so it feels good. It's definitely exciting. Because that's just going to go faster and faster. So we're going to probably break all the records of laptimes I reckon this year."
After failing to reveal its R.S.20 at its team launch in Paris last week, Renault officially rolled out its new car for the first time on Wednesday. And Ocon believes the team has a solid foundation from which to build performance.
"It's a good base that we are having at the moment," he said. "Sometimes when you step in a car and you think "ah, there is an issue" that you're trying to solve for the whole winter, there isn't any kind of that at the moment.
"So it feels pretty healthy. But it's only the first morning. We have to wait and see how this evolves during the test."
While it is indeed early days, Ocon highlighted the need to push the R.S.20 from the outset.
"We had a good chat with with Cyril [Abiteboul] and Alain [Prost] about this," he explained. "It's important that you push the car to have good references to have yourself ready, but also to have proper data because, that's the way you're going to be able to improve the car.
"You can't have the compromise like that. You still have to push it like if there was more time, and hopefully there won't be mistakes.
"I tried to have the first feel. It's not true that I'm just not leaning on it yet. I'm driving, trying to get the rust off of me also.
"It's been some time since I properly drove a car, which means with somebody next to me, and having references, etcetera. I'm just trying to get back up to speed.
"And it's important to have decent lap times to be able to feel how the car reacts in the race condition or in the in the practice condition."
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