3rd Pre-Season Test @ Barcelona (18th, 19th, 20th, 21st February)

[Retro Formula 1]

Well, testing is testing and results can largely be taken with a rather large pinch of Salt BUT....

McLaren???

RB look fast and Ferrari is pretty much there as well. I think they will both be on Par come the first race at, er, wherever the first race is??

McLaren though look to be struggleing. They were a bit late to the Party and Hamilton is not relishing these new boots it seems. It's rare that a car looks off the pace in testing and suddenly bounces to the top in the first race.

Perhaps this really will be Buttons year again but only if the Mac picks up it's Peticoat a bit.

[I am evil Homer]

Hard to tell really, McLaren seem to be trying a lot of different things so where their true pace is its hard to tell but it does look slightly off RBR and Ferrari.

[AndyL]

They have said they haven't had time to work on setup because they're a step behind on the basic testing of configurations. Perhaps when they start optimising their setups we'll see more of what the car is capable of. But certainly it doesn't look particularly great right now. Looks as if it's on cold tyres all the time, I read on one of the twitter feeds during this test. As has been previously suggested, is their design too bold?

[Tazio]

Still too early to tell, McLaren has shown some good pace, but they are also really struggling with tire degradation on their long runs. Dodgy business comparing times at this point

[UltimateDanGTR]

It seems at this stage there are four silver cars that will have form very hard to predict this year. I'm (selfishly) hoping they are the fastest, but I get the feeling this is Vettel's year again.

[DazzlaF1]

For what its worth, the full leaderboard for the Barcelona test (not including reserve drivers, thats no Ricciardo, Liuzzi, Mondino or Teixera)

* = 2010 car

1. Felipe Massa - Ferrari ................ 1m 22.625 (244 laps)
2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes ................ + 0.543 (223 laps)
3. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull ................ + 0.690 (141 laps)
4. Mark Webber - Red Bull ................ + 0.817 (208 laps)
5. Vitaly Petrov - Renault ................ + 0.838 (174 laps)
6. Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso ................ + 0.894 (154 laps)
7. Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso ................ + 0.925 (121 laps)
8. Nick Heidfeld - Renault ................ + 1.032 (163 laps)
9. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren ................ + 1.233 (200 laps)
10. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari ................ + 1.353 (191 laps)
11. Rubens Barrichello - Williams ................ + 1.383 (170 laps)
12. Pastor Maldonado - Williams ................ + 1.432 (181 laps)
13. Adrian Sutil - Force India ................ + 1.552 (166 laps)
14. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber ................ + 1.618 (203 laps)
15. Sergio Perez - Sauber ................ + 1.890 (189 laps)
16. Jenson Button - McLaren ................ + 2.298 (131 laps)
17. Paul di Resta - Force India ................ + 2.569 (106 laps)
18. Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus ................ + 2.829 (66 laps)
19. Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus ................ + 3.796 (112 laps)
20. Jerome d'Ambrosio - Virgin ................ + 3.876 (166 laps)
21. Timo Glock - Virgin ................ + 3.973 (163 laps)
22. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes ................ + 4.454 (204 laps)
23. *Narain Karthikeyan - Hispania ................ + 5.768 (148 laps)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DQ. 107% time - 1m 28.409 ................ + 5.784

[Retro Formula 1]

Still too early to tell, McLaren has shown some good pace, but they are also really struggling with tire degradation on their long runs. Dodgy business comparing times at this point

Yep, it's no definitive indication but does give you a "feel" for how preperation is going. At the moment, the feel isn't good but lets see in Australia.

[pettersolberg29]

I know it's hardly unexpected, but an interesting comment from Heidfeld on his official blog:

"Finally a word to all of my fans: I sadly have to disappoint everyone who is thinking that we are top of the grid now because of the fastest lap of Robert in Valencia and mine in Jerez. I hope that we will do well, but it seems that Red Bull is the fastest team. Certainly we work hard to chance this."

Unusual to comment like this, but maybe its just a veil over their pace. Either that or Nick is unhappy with the car still...

[DexDexter]

I know it's hardly unexpected, but an interesting comment from Heidfeld on his official blog:

"Finally a word to all of my fans: I sadly have to disappoint everyone who is thinking that we are top of the grid now because of the fastest lap of Robert in Valencia and mine in Jerez. I hope that we will do well, but it seems that Red Bull is the fastest team. Certainly we work hard to chance this."

Unusual to comment like this, but maybe its just a veil over their pace. Either that or Nick is unhappy with the car still...

He's just being realistic. I don't think any serious follower of F1 thinks that Renault have suddenly overtaken Red Bull, these things just don't happen overnight. In fact now with Kubica sidelined, I expect Renault to fall back to the midfield as the season progresses since, with all due respect to Heidfeld, their driver line-up is certainly not the strongest on the grid.

[I am evil Homer]

Yep I think it's setting expectations to say "hey look....we're not gonna challenge RBR for wins in the first race" but they've shown decent pace thus far.