Ted Kravitz was gob-smacked by the sheer number of laps laid down by some teams during the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Sky Sports F1 pundit made sure to single out the “eye-catching” tally of 108 reached by Red Bull after debuting their first-ever bespoke power unit.

Red Bull and Racing Bulls will both use a Red Bull Powertrains engine during the new technical regulations period. The power unit, built in collaboration with American auto manufacturing giant Ford, is the first produced by the Milton Keynes squad in F1.

Despite the immense scale of the challenge, Laurent Mekies’ squad navigated the first day of the pre-season test in Montmelo without any major hiccups as Isack Hadjar turned 108 laps in the RB22. Max Verstappen was forced to wait until Tuesday for his first run in the new car.

Reviewing the major takeaways from day one for Sky Sports F1 viewers, Kravitz said: “Lots of teams, when they did push their cars out of the garage, completed a lot of laps. And just to underline how many laps were done today, I mean, this is incredible.

“For a major rule change, the biggest in living memory, since the hybrid engines came in 2014, certainly. We’re not going to look at the lap times. These are unofficial times, I have to say, but we have cross-referenced them with the teams who have confirmed their individual times.

“So Hadjar was quickest for whatever that’s worth, with a 1:18.1. Half a tenth further back was George Russell. We believe that Russell’s time was on a C1, the hardest tyre, whereas Hadjar was not on the C1. With Colapinto, it was a good effort from him on a 1:20.1 with the times going down.

“But, 108 laps from Red Bull, that is eye-catching. And then 154 for Haas. And if you combine Antonelli and Russell, that’s 151. It’s incredible the way they’ve managed to get that running so reliably.”

Kravitz wasn’t the only one impressed with the RB22’s debut outing. Mercedes driver George Russell, fresh from a strong day-one outing in his new W17 machine, expressed his admiration for the new Red Bull engine.

“We are pleased with our day, but I’ve also been impressed by several other teams, too,” Russell said. “The Red Bull power unit has completed a lot of laps, which, given that it’s their first engine they’ve built, means they’ve clearly done a good job.

“Haas also managed a similar amount of running to ourselves, so the Ferrari power unit has also put together plenty of mileage. It’s not quite how it was in 2014! The sport has evolved so much since then, and the level, in every single aspect, is so high now.”