Red Bull get their wings

The second half of winter testing looks like it could be much better for Red Bull Racing.

After struggling through the first winter test session in Jerez and the opening day in Bahrain, day two proved positive for Red Bull and Four-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

At this point of pre-season times are almost irrelevant, as the watching spectator will have no clues as to what the teams are testing.

So Vettel being over five seconds slower than that of McLaren Mercedes rookie driver of Kevin Magnussen, will not alarm them too much.

The biggest positive was the completion of 59 laps of the Bahrain International Circuit, all within one day of testing.

That tally which which brings their complete laps in winter testing to 94. That may well still be some way short of Mercedes [468 laps], Ferrari [412] and McLaren [372]. But it’s a start and the first sign of anything positive in 2014.

Could it be an indication that they have finally sorted out the cooling issues with the exhaust?

“We did more laps today than so far the whole year, which is a step forward,” said Vettel to the BBC.

“We are learning every lap so we are trying to run as much as possible even if the quality of the lap is not the best, but the most important thing for us at this stage is simply to run.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: “The problems have been varied. We’ve had some problems on our side and a few problems on the Renault side but this is what testing is for.

“You aim to come to these venues to try to understand what issues you’ve got and work your way through them and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.”

Renault certainly also seem to have put many of their issues behind them.

As well as good running for Red Bull, Kamui Kobayashi in the Caterham concluded 66 laps and Jean-Eric Vergne for Toro Rosso completed 58 laps.

However it was another poor day for Lotus, with Romain Grosjean completing 18 laps, with the Enstone team playing catch-up after missing the entire first test in Jerez.

So now that the teams have begun to get a better understanding of the cars reliabilities, the real testing work begins in earnest.