Verstappen already feeling "big difference" with new Red Bull

Having started pre-season testing last year on the back foot, Red Bull has been more encouraged by its start this time around after Daniel Ricciardo topped the opening day of action.

And although Verstappen endured a tricky final day of running on Thursday – which included an off into the gravel – the Dutchman says he has seen enough to feel bullish about where his team is at with the RB14.

"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."

It was a wind tunnel correlation problem that hindered Red Bull in the early stages of last season, and having promising feedback on that front, rather than quick laptimes, is viewed as key to the signs of progress that Verstappen feels.

"Looking at lap times now doesn't make sense," he explained. "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."

As well as losing time with his off because he suffered a gearbox glitch as he tried to reverse out of the gravel, Verstappen was earlier hit by a fuel leak which hampered his progress as it was sorted in the garage.

However, he was far from annoyed at a day that was also impacted by the weather.

"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."

Additional reporting by Lawrence Barretto