Max: “The car looks aggressive, I can’t wait for my turn”

Published on 20 February 2018 by Niels Hendrix

At 11:06 Monday 19 February, Daniel Ricciardo took the all-new Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB14 for a spin on Silverstone's National Circuit at the start of a pre-season filming day.

The weather was wet, the track was cold but after running concluded, Daniel professed himself happy with his first experience of the new car. "It's always hard to tell from a few laps but the initial feeling is good. It's not doing anything that scares me and I can already feel that the rear of the car feels pretty settled, even in these poor conditions. Those are encouraging early signs."

The RB14 wore a special edition livery at Silverstone, nicknamed 'Disruption' in the garage. Daniel accessorised it today with an Aston Martin DB11 in the same scheme. "I was staying on-trend," he explained. "The car looked very cool today: it's what you want to see when you walk into a garage."

While not driving today, Max Verstappen found an excuse to stop by in the morning to take a look at the car and quiz Daniel on the performance. "The car looks very aggressive - and I really, really like today's livery, said Max. "Daniel's driving today but I can't wait for my turn in Barcelona. Hopefully it will be drier."

Winter testing begins next week. Alongside the formal group tests, teams are allowed to conduct two of these promotional events each year, within strict guidelines that limit running to 100km and mandate the use of a specific tyre compound developed by Pirelli for these occasions. Daniel wasn't going to be setting any lap records but it was a very useful day.