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Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen has once again showcased his immense talent on the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Max Verstappen set the second-fastest time on day one of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, with Lando Norris topping the time sheets.
The Red Bull star completed more laps than any of his rivals and will sit out on Thursday as Isack Hadjar makes his public testing debut for his new team.
Whose lap time caught your eye the most? 👀
Toto Wolff has suggested that Red Bull have the fastest car after seeing Verstappen’s RB22 racing down the straights in Bahrain.
That might be a bit of gamesmanship from Wolff with Mercedes’ power units under the spotlight, but Verstappen also displayed a new driving technique on Wednesday that very few of his fellow drivers attempted.
Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz was in the pit lane in Bahrain, and suggested that Verstappen has now perfected a ‘clipping’ technique that could be essential to success during F1’s newest regulation set.
READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Kravitz was providing a rundown of events on Ted’s Notebook (11/2 8:47 pm), and reporting on what Verstappen did in Red Bull’s car on Wednesday, he said: “I still think the day belongs to Red Bull Racing.
“As I said, Max Verstappen was out to do a day shift today. Was first out of the pit lane and then did 136 laps, set his quickest time in the heat of the day, ended up P2, had the aero rakes out, getting all the data that they needed, started to work on performance.
“Max never doesn’t ever not work on performance. Whenever he was out there, he looked like he was on top of the car.
“And do you know what was really noticeable was just the clipping. So once you’ve exhausted what you’re doing on your kind of race run battery neutral mode in terms of using it and then charging it back up and using it, the normal race stuff, there’s a little clipping light or regen light, or recharge light when the car is just starting to slow down and that comes on on the Red Bull and then it goes off really quickly.
“And so I think they’ve got their sort of their modes or they’re developing their modes really well, and that power unit has worked impeccably in this Red Bull today.
“So yeah, I think really that’s in many ways the story. 136 laps, P2 and looks good. Straight into the 1m 35s.”
READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links
One of the biggest components of the new regulation set is going to be how well each driver can recharge their batteries every lap to be able to deploy the maximum amount of power.
Damon Hill has suggested the rules are too complicated, and this was echoed by Lewis Hamilton, who said that fans will need a degree to know what’s going on.
Verstappen was seen downshifting into first gear at several points of the lap in order to keep revs higher and therefore charge the battery faster.
Audi drivers Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were attempting the same thing, although not as effectively as the four-time world champion.
It would be interesting to know if this was a technique Verstappen developed on the simulator, given his propensity to spend hours practising away from the track.
Red Bull have allayed one of Verstappen’s biggest fears ahead of the season starting, and now he’s once again repaying their faith in him after the first day of testing.
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