Reading Time: 8.3 minutes

As Lando and Oscar clambered out of the MCL38 at Silverstone, fresh from driving their new car for the first time, the air of optimism was evident before they’d even spoken.

From a performance perspective, the promotional filming day offered very little insight, with MCL38 running on a different set of tyres and rain thrashing down onto the track for most of the day, but they could at least tell that there were no surprises with the car.

The positivity radiating from them both, and from the rest of the team, came not from the success of this day, which was purely a promotional activity, but the general feeling around our Formula 1 factory in pre-season.

The pair feel, just as Andrea did when we spoke to him during pre-season, that we’ve enjoyed a successful off-season and are heading into the new campaign in good shape, while remaining wary that we do not yet know how much those around us have improved.

“No surprises today, everything felt comfortable and went smoothly, which was good,” Oscar said. “You never really know what you’ve got until you compare it to other people, so I think we'll have to wait a little longer to see what we've really got, but I think, as these kind of days go, it was smooth sailing.”

Lando agreed, adding: “It is difficult to compare too many things, but the main thing is that I jumped in and felt very comfortable straight away, there were no surprises or anything. It was comfortable and I could push it to the limit on those couple of little areas, but honestly, there's not a lot more to say than that.

“It will always be very different when you get on track for the first time in Bahrain, so we will have to wait until we go to Bahrain to understand how we really compare.”

The team are pleased with the work done to evolve and improve our Formula 1 car during car build and development, as we moved from the MCL60 to the MCL38, with further upgrades planned for during the season.

It’s hoped that our work over winter will see us keep pace with the teams around us and potentially even close the gap to those in front of us, with both drivers expecting the competition to get tighter as we head into the third season of these current regulations.

“If you were to say, 'Are they [Red Bull] beatable?' you’re going to have to say yes,” Lando said. “I think we want to believe that we can say yes because we were very close at certain times last year and at certain times we did beat them.

“The question is can we beat them over a season? I think that’s going to be the challenging thing, and I think it’s going to be very difficult to do with how well they’re performing. I’m optimistic. Is it possible to beat them at certain times? I want to believe so, yeah.

“The later you get into the regulations, the tighter it gets, that is normally what you see. I think it was already one of the tightest years, from what I remember, in terms of regulations, for quite a long time. Maybe not to win, but if you were to look at second or third to the back of the grid, it is probably even less than half a second. Maybe at the beginning of the season, the gap is going to open but probably through the year it is going to get tighter again.”

Oscar adds: “You have to have optimism that you can beat them [Red Bull]. Like Lando says, we got very close at certain times with some success in certain sessions. And as Andrea was saying, if we can keep up the same rate of development as last year, then I think we can be very optimistic.

“I think we have to be very aware, though, that it isn’t only Red Bull we are fighting. We were in a very intense battle with Mercedes and Ferrari towards the end of last season, and in terms of championship points, it was incredibly close between us. Every team has had success at various stages and we have to be wary that it isn’t only Red Bull we are fighting – other top teams are making progress as well.”

Lando will begin his sixth year and in that time has become one of the leading drivers on the grid with 13 podiums, while Oscar is heading into his second season on the back of one of the most impressive rookie years in recent times, which included two podiums and a Sprint win.

However, both believe they’ve still got a lot of developing to do and with the increase in competition, the margin for error decreases. Lando and Oscar have spent the winter working on their own drives, with a view to making the most of the MCL38’s performance, however good it turns out to be.

“If you don’t have the perfect lap, or don’t get something exactly right, I think that we are now going to see that you will be able to get away with it less and less, and that will require us to make fewer mistakes and work harder,” Lando says.

“There have been various things already that I have worked on, in terms of how I drive and how I work, in extracting more performance during laps, understanding these traits and putting them to the test on the simulator, trying to improve them.

“Sometimes it is hard to improve on various things until you are actually in the car and performing, but I’ve been trying to work on any area that I can improve - even if it is mental things. But it is a different experience until you get back into the car, and you are in that moment again, when you can try things during the pressure of those moments.

“I have done what I can with the team that I have around me, but it is hard to know until the first qualifying of the season, how well those things might work and what further things might need to be done to improve in those areas.”

Lando and Oscar will get back behind the wheel of the MCL38 for pre-season testing in Bahrain on 21 – 23 February, before the season kicks off at the Bahrain International Circuit on 29 February – 02 March.