Daniel Ricciardo says Red Bull feels like it is "in a good place" after completing just shy of 200 laps during his first two days behind the wheel of the RB12.
Ricciardo completed 112 laps on Tuesday, adding to the 87 he completed yesterday, as Red Bull put its TAG Heuer-branded Renault power unit through its paces without reliability issues. The Australian driver says Red Bull achieved everything it wanted to over the two days.
"A good one I think," Ricciardo said about his impression after two days. "We got through a good couple of days testing, did more or less everything that we set out to do. So it's good. Normally when we come to Barcelona we come from Jerez so we've already done some groundwork with the car but here it was straight in to it for us and I'm happy.
"Nearly 200 laps I think over two days and Danny [Kvyat] has still got two days ahead of him, so it's good. The team is positive, we're all feeling like we're in a good place. We didn't expect to set the world on fire during the first part of the season but I think we're on schedule now to be in a good position and we'll see where we end up in Melbourne."
When a journalist said the car looked quick and reliable, he replied: "Yeah, for two days I think we're confident with what we've got. Reliability was pretty good. On both days we had little bits and pieces but nothing that major, which was nice. We got pretty much 200 laps across the two days and I'm happy. The car feels pretty good, it was nice to get back in to it and I think we set a good rhythm from quite early on and it's good for me as well to get in to that."
Ricciardo finished the session second behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel after using Pirelli's new ultra-soft tyre for the first time, and he came away with a good first impression of the compound.
"It just felt like another step on top of the super-soft and the tyre behaved like just a softer compound, so I think that's good. It's consistent and you can expect just a little bit more grip from it. So yeah, a bit like the car, nothing strange, nothing to be concerned about and I think the ultrasoft was a good little step."