Barcelona F1 Test: The good, the bad and the ugly

The first preseason testing in Formula One ended on Thursday with Mercedes showing incredible reliability, Ferrari revealing some good pace, and McLaren enduring old problems.

Ferrari set the fastest times over the four days, but Mercedes showed strength by running more laps than any other team without facing significant problems. McLaren, meanwhile, ended the week facing more of the reliability problems that plagued the team last year.

Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest with Ferrari on Thursday at the Circuit de Barcelona, while teammate Sebastian Vettel led the way on Monday and Tuesday and set the week's fastest time. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was quickest on Wednesday.

"I don't know if this is going to be a good car," Raikkonen said. "No one can tell, but it seems to be a good car even if there are still many things to try out."

Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg impressed by running a total of 675 laps with Mercedes throughout the week, the equivalent of more than 10 Spanish Grands Prix.

"It's incredible, I've never seen anything like it," Hamilton said. "(The car) just keeps going and going and going."

Rosberg ran what he called an "F1 marathon" on Tuesday, completing 172 laps. Hamilton ran 156 laps on the first day alone, showing Mercedes again could be a step ahead of the rest of the field when the season starts on March 20 in Australia.

"(The car) feels strong, feels solid," Hamilton said. "We won the two world championships, and going into a third year you would think it's easy for us to lose focus, but everyone is even more focused than before, and have done an even better job in terms of building the whole package."

Indeed GrandPrix247 readers are convinced that Mercedes have retained their gap to the opposition, as 68% answered NO when asked if Ferrari have closed the gap to the reigning world champions.

McLaren showed improvement from a year ago when testing began, with teammates Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button running a significant amount of laps. But Button completed only 51 laps on Wednesday because of a hydraulic leak, and Alonso was held to only three laps on Thursday because of a coolant leak.

Daniil Kvyat was second fastest with Red Bull on Thursday, and Force India test driver Alfonso Celis finished third.

Red Bull endured what it called "technical glitches" in some of the sessions, while Williams struggled with a problem with one of the car systems on the final day.

Indonesian rookie Rio Haryanto went off the track with his Manor for the second straight day, while Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez endured a mechanical issue with newcomer Haas, which had a positive F1 debut despite reliability issues.

Renault, back in F1 after taking over Lotus, had a good final day with Kevin Magnussen running 153 laps — the most by any driver — and finishing fourth-fastest.
F1 said drivers covered more than 19,000 kilometers (11,800 miles) in total, enough to travel almost halfway around the world.

Teams will test for the last time on March 1-4, again in Barcelona.