Max satisfied after first day of testing in Bahrain: 'We had a good day'

Published on 11 February 2026 by Julien Lemmen

Max Verstappen had a busy day in the RB22 during the first day of testing in Bahrain today. With no fewer than 136 laps completed, Max was the most productive driver of the day. 

The Oracle Red Bull Racing-driver reflects after the first day of testing: “We had a good day today; we got in a lot of laps and tested different programmes. Red Bull Ford Powertrains is still a completely new project, compared to others, so there is so much to keep learning and figuring out ahead of the first race. We went through a lot of testing procedures that we might run into during a race weekend: this might be more straightforward for a Power Unit manufacturer who have been in the game a long time, but when you are new you need to test it all. Of course, we also did a lot of normal running. Everyone is running completely different programmes, so we are not focusing on lap times and the standings, but instead focusing on understanding the car and the tyres. It is a completely different track compared to Barcelona, so it is good to have that comparison. Looking at the day, it was all okay and we didn’t run into trouble, which was the most important thing, so I can now look to Friday for what else we can learn."