Nothing can be concluded from the opening pre-season test, as is the norm in Formula 1, but this particular one has certainly raised a few eyebrows over the first four days of the 2015 season.
After enduring their first winless season since 1993, Ferrari have laid down the initial benchmark by topping all but one day of the Jerez test, at the hands of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
Raikkonen, the 2007 World Champion, set the fastest time of the entire week with a 1:20.841, a tenth ahead of his team mate, who recorded the second fastest time of the week.
It is believed that the Scuderia did their fastest runs on a low fuel load, so may not be a true representation of where they are in comparison to the rest of the field, but they can at least leave Jerez encouraged and ready to further prove themselves in Barcelona.
The biggest surprise of the weekend was undoubtedly Sauber. Again, it’s still early days, but the Swiss team have been showing some decent pace. They’ve needed it as well, after their first pointless season in their history. Felipe Nasr, one of three rookies on the 2015 grid, topped the timesheets on the third day, enough for the third fastest time overall.
Nasr’s team mate Marcus Ericsson was also showing some pace, ending up second of both of his days of running, and the Swede reckons the C34 has more in the tank.
The Jerez test was more a showing of reliability than speed for the reigning champions, Mercedes. Nico Rosberg clocked up 157 laps on the first day alone, and barring a couple of technical glitches throughout the week the W06 proved to be a very reliable car.
Further down the order, Williams got their season off to a solid start, with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas setting the seventh and eighth fastest laps of the week. Both drivers were around one and a half seconds off the pace of Raikkonen, but the team were pleased enough with their progress.
Red Bull and McLaren both had tests to forget. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull’s new boy, had an early off on the second day, which confined the Russian to running the rest of the session without a front wing. Despite the hype surrounding their ‘camo-livery’, the RB11 didn’t show much pace, and Daniel Ricciardo wound up two and a half seconds off the pace, with Kvyat three seconds behind.
McLaren were blighted by constant problems throughout the Jerez test, so were unable to show any sort of representative pace, with both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso ending the week with the two slowest times.
Despite the setbacks, Eric Boullier, the Racing Director of McLaren, was pleased with the progress made by the mechanics and the fact that they were able to iron out any problems early on.
It is highly unlikely that the results from this week are an accurate representation of where each team will be at Melbourne. We have yet to see what sort of pace McLaren can extract from the new Honda engines, and it is believed that Mercedes have yet to show their true hand. However, from what has been witnessed in Jerez, we may well be set for one of the most competitive seasons in recent history.
Combined lap times
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