McLaren top of pecking order remain the team to beat

Mercedes, with 18-year-old Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli joining George Russell after seven-times champion Lewis Hamilton moved to Ferrari, may have made a step forward.

Red Bull, dominant in 2023 but third last season, were harder to judge but have work to do before the first race in Melbourne on March 16.

Mercedes did the most laps over the three days at Sakhir, a total of 458 equivalent to just over eight race distances, and looked stable.

Red Bull, with four-times champion Max Verstappen now partnered by New Zealander Liam Lawson in place of Sergio Perez, did the least -- 304 laps.

RBR technical director Pierre Wache reported: "I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times. It is going in the right direction, just maybe the magnitude of the direction was not as big as we expected and it's something we need to work on for the first race and future development."

Formula 1's data indicated McLaren were quickest on low fuel by 0.21 of a second from Ferrari, with a slightly smaller advantage on race pace. Red Bull were third on both measures with Mercedes fourth, but Russell was fastest on the final day.

McLaren's Lando Norris, already the bookmakers' title favourite, and Oscar Piastri sounded positive about a balanced and quick car that impressed in race simulations. The Australian said: "The car ran pretty much faultlessly, which was a solid place to be starting from."

The reigning F1 Constructors' Wolrd Champions were also suspected of 'sandbagging', hiding their true pace by aborting fast laps. But could not hide eye-watering race pace.

At Ferrari, Hamilton appeared comfortable in the car but the Briton had to finish earlier than planned on Friday due to telemetry gremlins.

Williams, ninth of 10 teams last season, were fastest of all after Carlos Sainz did a low-fuel qualifying simulation and completed the fifth most mileage (395 laps) -- more than McLaren (381) and Ferrari (382).

The data suggested Williams could be battling Renault-owned Alpine to be best of the rest outside the top four, with a question mark over Aston Martin. Sainz's Thursday lap of 1:29.348s was also quicker than Williams' fastest time in qualifying in Bahrain last year and would have been good for second on that grid.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Williams could be 'top five' but Sainz laughed that off given the uncertainties of testing and cars running on various fuel loads.

"I don't think we've done the necessary step to be fighting with the top teams this year. I was trying to go quick, which in testing is not normally the case, and I'm sure the top teams are not trying yet," said Sainz.

At the bottom, future Audi works team Sauber gave no hint of moving up the pecking order while Haas could be their rivals for the bottom of the pecking order, which will be revealed when things get serious in Qualifying on 15 March for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.