"It was a very productive day" - Red Bull's Sergio Perez upbeat despite late spin during testing in Bahrain

Red Bull's Sergio Perez was optimistic after Day 1 of pre-season testing in Bahrain, despite a late spin curtailing his exploits on the asphalt.

Despite being only the 10th fastest car on track, Perez was upbeat. During a post-session media interaction, he said:

“Towards the end of the day, after the [Virtual] Safety Car, I had cold tires and just lost it and unfortunately went into the gravel. It ended the session early, so hopefully everyone can have a nice rest now! It was a very productive day, we did plenty of laps and gathered a lot of information.”

Speaking about data gathered in the scorching temperatures of the Bahrain circuit, Sainz said:

“It was good to get a read on the car on a different track with higher temperatures. It’s obviously very different here compared to Barcelona. Bahrain is one of the roughest circuits on the calendar, so you are naturally more rear-biased. In general, we had a good pace and we have plenty of information to go through – there is so much to learn at the moment.”

The Mexican went off the track at the end of the session and cost the rest of the grid six minutes of time as a result. He, however, managed to log in 138 laps in the new Red Bull RB18 before the incident.

---

Red Bull not short of talent for future F1 spots, confirms Christian Horner

Red Bull boss Christian Horner knows his team could be spoilt for choice in the near future with no dearth of young emerging talent in their junior program.

Red Bull's world-class junior program is helmed by Dr. Helmut Marko, the man responsible for shaping the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

During an interview with RacingNews365, Horner said:

“[Finding seats is a problem], but they’re all in competitive cars in their categories, so let’s see. We’ve got a great stable of young talent this year with Vips and Lawson in Formula 2, Jehan [Daruvala] as well. We’ve got Hauger stepping up, [as Formula 3 Champion] - he’s another exciting talent. So we’ve got a rich vein of talent. Jak Crawford [currently racing in Formula 3] is an exciting young American, so yeah, we’re not short of talent!”

Red Bull has Max Verstappen tied down to a long-term contract that runs through until 2028. Sergio Perez's contract is due to run out at the end of the season.