'Most important thing is the car is fast', says happy Max

There were no complaints about his new company car from world champion Max Verstappen, who completed a whopping 147 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on the first day of pre-season testing in 2022.

The new Red Bull RB18 experienced no problems during the day, and although he wasn't on top of the timesheets when the chequered flag came out the Dutch driver was more than satisfied by the pace of the car in its first extended outing.

"We wanted to get laps in today to get used to the car and to get a general understanding about how it’s behaving," he said after completing his marathon stint in the car.

• Read also: Red Bull's new RB18 breaks cover in Barcelona

"The car looks good but the most important thing is that it is fast, and that’s what we are trying to see," he continued.

"We needed the mileage to see how the parts held up. Everything worked pretty well, so it was a good start and a positive day. Tonight, we will look into things in more detail and see what we need to do to improve."

Verstappen will have to watch from the sidelines on Thursday, with Sergio Perez getting his first chance to experience how the new car feels out on track.

"Checo will drive tomorrow and then I am looking forward to getting back in the RB18 on Friday," Verstappen confirmed.

Red Bull's head of race engineering Guillaume Rocquelin said that today's endurance run had met all their expectations. "Today went really well for the team. We gave ourselves the optimistic target of 700km and we finished around three laps short of that, which for the first day of testing is quite unusual.

"Things went well, we did some tests and we have a good direction for how to improve the car. Max is pleased so far - there are some balance limitations but nothing that makes us think we need to turn things upside down to make the car work.”

Team principal Christian Horner was just as pleased as his driver to be back at work, despite a shorter than usual interval between seasons since Verstappen claimed the title in Abu Dhabi in December.

“It was a very short off-season, but it’s great to be back at the track and see the number one on the car," he said. "It’s been a long time since it’s been on an F1 car and our target this year is to keep it.

"Max felt the car was good to drive, so it was a positive first morning," he added. "We’ve got a great team and we’re fully motivated coming into this season."

As well as the short turnaround, this year's preparations have been made even harder by the major changes to the sport's technical rules and regulations, resulting in very different car designs from before.

"We are excited to get this new era of the sport underway," Horner said. "With such a big regulation change it’s even more fascinating this year.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner, Max Verstappen, Guillaume Rocquelin