Mekies reflects on ‘special moment’ of Red Bull running with new power unit in Barcelona

Laurent Mekies admitted that it was a “very special moment” for Red Bull to run with their own power unit for the first time during the Barcelona Shakedown, with the Team Principal adding that he is “proud” of the squad for the work that has gone into the project.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit were amongst those to hit the track during the first day of the event at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as Isack Hadjar got behind the wheel of the RB22. They went on to put in further mileage during mixed conditions on Tuesday, this time sharing driving duties between Max Verstappen in the morning and Hadjar later on.

Following Day 2 of the shakedown, Mekies shared his thoughts on the team’s running so far and spoke about how it felt to see the new challenger head out onto the circuit on Monday morning, ahead of the squad’s first season with their own Red Bull Ford Powertrains power unit.

“We knew it would be a very special moment to be here for the first time with the RB22 with our own power unit, so it came with that special atmosphere and tensions,” said Mekies.

“The last few months and weeks have been incredibly hectic to be ready, but ultimately we were ready on Monday morning to run. I can only take the opportunity to say a big thank you and well done to everybody back in Milton Keynes, chassis-side, power unit-side, because it was incredible to see the car going out at a few minutes past nine on Monday morning with our own power unit.

“We knew we have to do our homework and we have to do it step by step. Nonetheless, we got quite a few laps yesterday with Isack, which was a positive day, starting to learn the power unit, starting to learn the car.”

In terms of the running on Day 2, where Hadjar experienced a crash in the damp conditions, Mekies continued: “Today the weather was a bit more difficult, and Max drove in the morning. We only got one run of dry running before the rain came. It’s part of the game, we felt anyway that it was interesting to run in the rain also with these regulations.

“Obviously everything is new, and we knew we would have a lot of work to do. That’s what we’ve done, and then switching to Isack in the afternoon, again no chance for dry tyres but some good learning on the wet and in the right way. But what is important is that Isack is okay, and we will try our best to repair the car and to see what’s coming next.”

Mekies went on to further praise the team at Red Bull’s headquarters for ensuring that the new power unit would be ready in time for the Barcelona Shakedown.

“I have to say, in terms of what we were expecting from the power unit on these first couple of days, I can only repeat how proud we are from everybody back at base to have managed to give us something that we can actually run with,” he explained.

“Of course it’s very early days and of course nothing is perfect, but we could run, we could start to learn, work as one team, so that was a huge satisfaction. It doesn’t change the size of the journey in front of us, but certainly it’s a first moment that everybody in MK should be proud of.”

Mekies hailed Monday as a “very, very positive day” in terms of the number of laps completed by Hadjar, as well as in regards to the youngster’s “learning and development and feedback to the engineers”.

“Early days, but a great energy in the team, great spirits between Max and Isack and the whole team,” Mekies added. “We just can’t wait to have the next possibility to run but, as I said, it’s something we are trying to analyse now and hopefully we get some answers later on.”

With teams permitted to run on three days across the five available to them in Barcelona, Red Bull have now completed two of those days.

Looking at what the squad’s checklist holds for the remainder of the event, Mekies smiled: “The checklist is too long to be completed in just a few days in Barcelona, so it’s always going to be a matter of priority and trying to be flexible and adapt your programme as difficulties come out, or in terms of when you find an interesting direction that you should pursue.

“The priority right now as we speak tonight is to assess the damage on the car and to see what it gives to us in terms of opportunities to run in the next day. We only have one day left, so we have to make sure we play that card carefully and it’s an analysis that will take still a few hours.”