With four days of running at Jerez already under their belts, the teams were able to change focus slightly and begin discovering the true potential of their 2015 machines over the four-day pre-season test at Barcelona.
But which teams have made a jump forward, and which are at risk of dropping down the order? We crunch the numbers to shed some light on whose preparations appear to be coming on the strongest for the forthcoming season…
This week’s unofficial aggregate test times from Barcelona:
1. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 24.067s, 111 laps
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 24.321s, 197 laps
3. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 24.348s, 173 laps
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 24.574s, 202 laps
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 24.584s, 164 laps
6. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 24.672s, 143 laps
7. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 24.702s, 155 laps
8. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.739s, 223 laps
9. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 24.923s, 201 laps
10. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 24.941s, 216 laps
11. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 24.956s, 152 laps
12. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 25.345s, 178 laps
13. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 25.604s, 188 laps
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1m 25.961s, 79 laps
15. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus, 1m 26.280s, 77 laps
16. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 26.312s, 181 laps
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 26.340s, 166 laps
18. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 26.591s, 36 laps
19. Pascal Wehrlein, Force India, 1m 27.333s, 113 laps
20. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 28.182s, 45 laps
21. Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes, 1m 28.489s, 48 laps
22. Susie Wolff, Williams, 1m 28.906s, 86 laps
Total distance run – by team (power unit, where different):
1. Mercedes, 446 laps – 2,076 km
2. Red Bull (Renault), 418 laps – 1,945 km
3. Toro Rosso (Renault), 411 laps – 1,913 km
4. Williams (Mercedes), 407 laps – 1,894 km
5. Lotus (Mercedes), 361 laps – 1,680 km
6. Ferrari, 345 laps – 1, 605 km
7. Sauber (Ferrari), 318 laps – 1,480 km
8. Force India (Mercedes), 304 laps – 1,415 km
9. McLaren (Honda), 124 laps – 577 km
Total distance run – by power unit:
1. Mercedes, 1,518 laps – 7,066 km
2. Renault, 829 laps – 3,858 km
3. Ferrari, 663 laps – 3,086 km
4. Honda, 124 laps – 577 km
Longest stints – by tyre compound:
Supersoft compound – 5 laps (Felipe Nasr; Sergio Perez; Pascal Wehrlein)
Soft compound – 16 laps (Valtteri Bottas)
Medium compound – 24 laps (Max Verstappen)
Prototype medium compound* – 14 laps (Daniel Ricciardo)
Hard compound – 27 laps (Valtteri Bottas)
Intermediate compound – 7 laps (Sebastian Vettel)
*Being assessed by Pirelli for development purposes
Second test comparison – Year on Year*
2014 (Bahrain) – 2,322 laps (12,566 km) completed in four days
2015 (Barcelona) – 3,134 laps (14,587 km) completed in four days
That’s a 16 percent increase
2014 fastest lap in qualifying at Barcelona – 1m 25.232s (Lewis Hamilton)
2015 fastest lap in testing at Barcelona – 1m 24.067s (Romain Grosjean)
That’s 1.4 percent faster
*Bahrain hosted the second pre-season test in 2014