What We Learnt From Barcelona

What We Learnt From Barcelona

Never in the field of F1 testing can so little be drawn from so much (data). Winter testing came to an end in Barcelona on Sunday with everyone's favourites, Red Bull Racing, limping out of the garage in the last fifteen minutes to complete just 22 laps in the day and ending up slowest - further muddying the water.

The general consensus has been that Red Bull and McLaren are probably (but not definitely) the fastest, trailed by Mercedes and Lotus with Ferrari maybe as far back as fifth. At the back HRT and Marussia haven't run and Caterham look to have joined the midfield - but after that it's crystal ball gazing.

The BBC's technical expert, former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson, has been speaking to his former colleagues up and down the pitlane and they all agree that so many of the top cars are evenly matched that this is going to be the closest season for years - one small mistake in qualifying could cost 10 places on the grid.

This means it could be a bumper season for the F1 neutrals and a difficult time for the F1 bookmakers who need to set odds based on more than the usual smoke and mirrors and headline grabbing glory runs.

So what concrete facts did we learn from the final four days of Barcelona:

Red Bull's desire to have a quiet time on Monday with just themselves, Ferrari, HRT and Lotus at the track were dashed by the FIA earlier in the week when they ruled that all running must cease on Sunday. It became apparent on Saturday why they had this sudden shyness when they revealed 'the real RB8' a different car to the one they'd been testing on Thursday and Friday. And proceeded to throw bodies in front of it, put umbrellas round it and screen off the garage whenever it had to be wheeled into or out of the garage.

The 'line' from the team was that there were so many add-ons to the new version that rather than bolt them on at the track, they'd ship out a new chassis with them all pre-installed. Christian Horner and Mark Webber both tried to persuade the press that these were just a few minor additions and it was pretty much the same as before. To which the press went 'yeah, right'.

The latest Red Bull front wing looks like it was designed as an exercise in fabrication complexity with "more planes than the Farnborough Air Show".

The new McLaren aero package has Red Bull-style air deflectors hanging down from the underside of the chassis. "Immediately when we put them on the car felt much better," Jenson said on Saturday. His race simulation was hampered by a hydraulic problem on Saturday afternoon andhe tweeted that he was going to have to do quite a bit of work on Friday in Melbourne.

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What We Learnt From Barcelona