Ricciardo: Encouraging early signs from Red Bull RB14 F1 car

Daniel Ricciardo found some "encouraging early signs" from the Red Bull RB14 Formula 1 car following his first run-out in the new model on Monday at Silverstone, completing a shakedown ahead of pre-season testing in Barcelona next week.

Red Bull launched its 2018 challenger with a special edition livery - nicknamed 'disruption' - ahead of the official colour scheme's unveiling at the start of official testing, with Ricciardo completing a filming day run at Silverstone.

"It’s always exciting to drive the car for the first time. It sounds a bit different, obviously looks a bit different – actually it looks cool," Ricciardo said.

"It’s cold, it’s pretty miserable today at Silverstone but it’s nice to be out there. First cobwebs shaken out and I’m ready to go to Melbourne.

“It’s hard to tell from a couple of laps but the initial feeling in the car is good. I can already feel that the rear feels pretty settled, even in these poor conditions. Those are encouraging early signs."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: "The special edition livery has made its mark on the 2018 season. Knowing we were running all of our development and processes earlier to meet this early launch, we felt that ‘shift’ had to be reflected in the livery, hence the ‘digital disruption’ you saw on the RB14 at Silverstone.

"It was good to have got the first few laps of 2018 under our belts and now we look forward to the first test in Barcelona next week."