Alex Albon and Max Verstappen completed a marathon 471 laps and 2100km of running in the new RB16 for the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship, on Week 1 of the Pre-Season Test at the Circuit de Catalunya Barcelona.

Following the launch of the new-for-2020 Aston Martin Red Bull Racing RB16, Alex had to wait a while for his first taste of the new car. After Max was in the cockpit for the RB16’s track debut at Silverstone last week and on the opening day one of the pre-season test, but on Thursday his moment arrived and it didn’t disappoint. Alex smashed through the century mark in terms of laps completed and got acclimitised with the teams new challenger. Despite having the running curtailed early, as the Thai driver was forced to miss out on some track time when data from the PU prompted the Team to make precautionary engine change.

In the end, a thorough examination of the engine revealed no issues and the original PU would be back in the car on the final day.
The delay didn’t unduly upset Alex’s day, however, and on his first day at wheel of the RB16 he was able to get through 134 laps of the Barcelona track.

‍Alexander Albon (Car 23):

“After Max’s running we carried on the work today and tried a few things that he tried.
Comments wise we were very similar which is always positive. Over the winter we have addressed some of the areas where we felt we were struggling and I felt pretty comfortable in the car straight away.”

Alex, added that he’d felt improvements throughout the week.

“The car feels good and each time we went out it felt better and better. It’s all about gaining experience of the car, learning what we can do with it and getting ready for Melbourne.
The main areas we needed to work on have definitely improved. I think we’re looking strong and compared to last year we’ve made a good step forward.”

The team heads into the second week of the pre-season test from the 26-28 February, where the final preparations before the season opener in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix

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Press Release Content: Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
Media Content: Red Bull Content Pool

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