2023 is Red Bull's best pre-season since 2005, feels team boss Christian Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner claimed that the 2023 F1 pre-season testing was the team's best ever since it was created back in 2005. Although the Austrian-British team has had a lot of success in the past, Horner believes that Red Bull is on a completely different level in 2023.

Speaking at the team principals' press conference, he was asked whether the 2023 pre-season was the best for the team ever since it was created. He agreed that the team had a brilliant pre-season test simply because of what they were able to achieve in such a short amount of time:

"Quite honestly, it probably is, in terms of mileage, and what we've managed to achieve in a compressed amount of time, probably it is. I can't remember a pre-season, particularly when you've only got three days to rattle through everything."

Christian Horner further explained how efficiently the team had to work to complete pre-season testing in just three days. He appreciates the work that goes on behind the scenes and how different parts are developed and delivered to the team as soon as possible:

"It was a great team performance in terms of… because it's all the effort that goes on behind the scenes, in terms of getting the parts, delivering the parts, getting the cars built and delivered here to a set of regulations. It was similar to last year, there are still subtle differences, so yeah, I'd say it was right up there."

Red Bull looked nearly faultless in pre-season testing and topped the timing sheets in most sessions. Although the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes, and even Aston Martin will be trying everything to catch them, it will be a behemoth task.

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Max Verstappen and Red Bull encountered issues during FP1 of Bahrain GP

Max Verstappen faced some handling issues during the first practice session of the 2023 F1 Bahrain GP. The session ended with him finishing third, right behind Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez.

Speaking about the issue, Helmut Marko explained that the two-time world champion's driving behavior saw a slight change, which caused tire temperatures to change in a way that the team didn't expect. The Red Bull advisor said:

"With Max, we have a change in driving behavior that we can't really explain at the moment. The temperatures are a bit different. But we have to find out what's going on there and why the car doesn't react at all, in contrast to what happened during the test."

Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez was quite comfortable with the car and easily topped the charts in the very first practice session. Furthermore, 'Checo' has also expressed how the car feels much better in comparison to the RB18.