The Red Bull drivers believe they can challenge Mercedes for victory at the US Grand Prix.
Both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were pleased with the long run pace of their RB12’s around the Circuit of the Americas – which indicated they could even be faster than the Silver Arrows.
While single lap pace remains a bigger question mark, Ricciardo even broke the stranglehold Mercedes had at the top in the first session as he posted the second fastest time, just under two-tenths behind the pacesetter Nico Rosberg.
Looking back on the day’s running, the Australian was confident Red Bull were on the right track.
“It is Friday, but it is nice to have a good Friday,” he said. “It is nice to start the weekend on the right foot, so I don’t think we will have hours and hours of work ahead of us tonight, just a bit of fine-tuning as always and we don’t have to search for too much at the moment.
“It was a good day. I think this morning was solid and the long run pace was good. Then we sort of continued on this afternoon, made a few changes in between the two sessions and we look pretty good for now.
“Hopefully we stay like that and we should have a good race if that is the case.”
As for Verstappen, he revealed on Thursday that he has started to move away from his teammate in terms of setup on his Red Bull car. Perhaps one of the biggest time deficits between the pair in a while on Friday afternoon was evidence of that shift.
Indeed, the Dutchman admitted changes made after the initial morning practice were rolled back as he struggled for an ideal balance.
“The short run for me was not great in P2,” Max said after finishing fifth behind the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
“We made quite a few changes in the car and it didn’t seem to work so that is why it took me a bit longer to go out on the long run as we made quite a few changes back to what we thought could work and it worked pretty well.”
“I had a Ferrari in front of me and was catching him on the long runs so that was positive.”
That final comment will certainly offer Red Bull confidence as they continue to fight Ferrari for second in the Constructors’ championship.
After showing strong pace at Suzuka, where penalties hampered Vettel and Raikkonen’s race, the Italian team was expected to be equally on form around of sweeping corners in Austin.
Yet, it was far from the best day for the Scuderia as they lacked single lap pace on the supersoft tyres though did look more competitive in race trim.
It will be very interesting to see how the battle between all three top teams develops on Saturday.
