Categories: FeatureFeatures

Barcelona in-season test in numbers

The first in-season test at Barcelona saw little in the way of surprises, but showed a major step forward for McLaren over the two months since the end of pre-season testing.

Mercedes was again top of the pile both in terms of the fastest lap and laps completed, with Nico Rosberg setting the pace on day one and going unbeaten. Jolyon Palmer’s place near the top comes courtesy of a supersoft tyre run late on day two, while Jenson Button similarly used the softest of Pirelli’s compounds.

A number of rookie drivers also took part in the test, and none looked out of place after solid outings for the likes of Nick Yelloly and Pierre Gasly, while Pascal Wehrlein, Alex Lynn and Esteban Ocon also showed their potential having driven F1 machinery before.

Below are the combined results in terms of lap time, with each team only running one driver per day as regulations prevent them from running more than one car at a time.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	N. Rosberg	Mercedes	1:24.374	146
2	J. Palmer	Lotus	1:26.080	87
3	P. Werhlein	Mercedes	1:26.497	137
4	M. Ericsson	Sauber	1:26.624	98
5	R. Marciello	Ferrari	1:26.648	125
6	P. Gasly	Red Bull	1:26.683	75
7	D. Kvyat	Red Bull	1:26.904	101
8	J. Button	McLaren	1:26.927	100
9	A. Lynn	Williams	1:26.967	52
10	P. Maldonado	Lotus	1:27.338	60
11	N. Yelloly	Force India	1:27.396	109
12	E. Ocon	Force India	1:27.520	94
13	P. Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:27.639	131
14	F. Massa	Williams	1:27.911	54
15	E. Gutiérrez	Ferrari	1:27.930	119
16	C. Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:27.997	126
17	O. Turvey	McLaren	1:28.542	68
18	R. Marciello	Sauber	1:28.829	75

In terms of team-by-team mileage, Mercedes was predictably the busiest team, but McLaren’s improvement in terms of reliability was highlighted by its final lap total having been comfortably the least productive in pre-season.

Pos	Team	Laps
1	Mercedes	283
2	Toro Rosso-Renault	257
3	Ferrari	244
4	Force India-Mercedes	203
5	Red Bull-Renault	176
6	Sauber-Ferrari	173
7	McLaren-Honda	168
8	Lotus-Mercedes	147
9	Williams-Mercedes	106

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.