Horner: Driver testing needs to be 'fair and balanced'

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that balancing the demands of drivers and engineers makes for a tricky situation when working out the schedule for pre-season testing.

Drivers will always want as much time in the car as possible and engineers will always want the consistent feedback of a single driver, so the problem faced by team principals up and down the paddock comes when splitting the six days of running between the two drivers when only one car per team is available for use during a test.

"It's trying to come up with something that's fair and balanced," Horner told the Formula One world feed. "The engineers prefer having continuity over a whole day with just one driver in the car.

"It can sometimes break the rhythm by switching drivers half way through, but the kind of mileage these cars are doing now, you cram as much as you can into the two half days.

"Therefore, having that flexibility and the ability to change your drivers at lunchtime is a positive thing."

Inside of the first three hours of day one of pre-season testing on Wednesday, Max Verstappen, on driving duties for the first morning of the test, had completed a full Grand Prix distance - 66 laps.

Horner also clarified that Red Bull will be focusing on their own car during the first test rather than spending too much time worrying about their rivals.

He added: "Certainly, this week we're just very much focused on what we're doing.

"Inevitably, people are taking pictures of different cars that will get analysed by all of the teams, but this program is very much focused on as much as we can learn out of these six days."

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