Verstappen feels 'big difference' in Red Bull

Max Verstappen says there is a "big difference" between the 2018 Red Bull and its predecessor. The Dutchman took a trip in the gravel and encountered issues on the final day of the first test in Barcelona, but remains enthused by his new car.

Verstappen only managed 35 laps on Thursday, fewer than any other driver, and was ninth-fastest with a best time of one minute 22.058 seconds.

He brought out red flags with his trip off the track at turn 12 and saw running early in the day limited by technical issues.

Though he sat almost three seconds down on Lewis Hamilton on the timesheet, Verstappen remained impressed with Red Bull's progress.

"It's a big difference, the way the car is handling, and I think it's in a positive way," he said.

"We didn't do any performance laps but when you have conditions like this, which are not ideal, it's good to make sure everything is working well in terms of the data you get from the car compared to what is happening in the wind tunnel.

"Looking at lap times now doesn't make sense. This track with the new surface, it takes a long time until you get a lap time out of it. We have only done runs of two laps.

"I'm not too worried yet. You know Mercedes and Ferrari are going to be strong anyway. I'm quite happy with the car so far. In the second week maybe we'll show a bit more."

Wintry madness hampered all teams through the test, and Verstappen was happy to hold back in tricky conditions.

"We didn't want to run when it was that wet. It didn't make sense for us," he said. "When the track was drying out, we went out on the intermediates.

"Everything seemed to work well. We did our own programme, just checking the car on the slick tyres on very short runs.

"When we wanted to go for longer runs, we had a little hiccup, we had a leak, so we were just checking the whole car. It took longer than expected.

"Once we went out again. I had a moment at Turn 12, then reversing, something happened with the gearbox, but those things happen. Anyway, the conditions this week were not great."