Red Bull have some work to do before the RB21 heads to Australia after technical director Pierre Wache revealed the car “did not respond how” the team expected at times during pre-season testing.

The Formula 1 teams wrapped up the three-day test at the Bahrain International Circuit on Friday with George Russell quickest on the final day, while McLaren appeared to have the upper hand in long-run pace.

Red Bull pre-season test was ‘not as smooth’ as hoped

Added to that, the Milton Keynes squad completed the fewest laps of all 10 teams at just 304 compared to Mercedes with 458 laps.

Friday was a bit of a stop-start day as the team trailed a new nose and front wing layout, while also running back-to-back floor tests.

Wache admits it didn’t quite go according to plan, but they did take steps in the right direction .

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“It was not as smooth a test as we expected and the team expected, but it is better to find some problems here than later down the line and it is why we are here, to understand the car,” said the Frenchman.

“The weather was not with us and not very representative of this track, but we tried to explore the potential of the car and tried to understand how it responds to different set-ups, and I think we more or less achieved that.

“I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times, but it is going in the right direction, just maybe the magnitude of the direction was not as big as we expected and it’s something we need to work on for the first race and future development.”

But while it is being widely being claimed that McLaren were the standout team in testing, Wache isn’t willing to make any predictions about the running order come the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

“I think it’s very difficult to see a starting order for Melbourne across the grid right now,” he said. “You see that four teams look quite quick, including us, but we didn’t look too much at other teams, we tried to focus on our programme.”

Verstappen wrapped up the test on Friday as he replaced his new team-mate Liam Lawson behind the wheel of the RB21.

Finishing the day two-tenths down on Russell’s P1 time, he said: “I think it wasn’t bad but at the same time there is still a bit of work to do.

“However, it is what we expected and we will keep on working and keep on trying to improve and hopefully, as we go into Melbourne, we will learn a bit more by going through all the data and see where we are at.

“It is difficult to tell where everyone’s pace is, so there is still a bit of work to do for us. We are looking forward to starting racing properly again in Australia.”

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