Daniil Kvyat expects to be able to hit the ground running in his second season at Red Bull after a slow start last year.
The Russian driver struggled in the opening five races of his first season after being promoted from Toro Rosso, before showing an upturn in form from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards. With Red Bull also having trouble with its chassis early on, Kvyat believes his year of experience with the team will clearly help him in 2016.
“I feel last year Danny [Ricciardo] knew the team well, which helped him at the beginning of a tough season," Kvyat said. “For me it was all very, very hard at the start. I didn’t know what kind of roles the people had in the team.
“But now when I go to the factory, or when I’ll be going to the track, everything will be more familiar, things will become automatic. I won’t have to waste time thinking ‘What should I do?’, or who I should ask to do this and that.
“All the people around me know what to do and it automatically makes things easier.”
Asked if settling in to the team was holding him back at the start of 2015, Kvyat replied: “In the beginning, yes, but in the end what you have to do is be as confident as you can with the car.
“The tests, the first few races were very tricky, so it took me a while. But then things looked a lot more promising, and now we are ready to have a nice clean winter testing and start races a lot more prepared than we were last year.”
Check out Red Bull Racing's 2016 livery
Eric Silbermann: No news is no news
Key dates for the 2016 F1 season
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter