F1 Testing: Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 on final day in Barcelona (Update)

Observations from the Test

1. No one has shown their full hand yet.
2. Mercedes and Red Bull still appear to be the teams to beat
3. Ferrari appears like they are ready to challenge Mercedes and Red Bull for wins given they never bolted on soft tires over the 3 days.  The Italians are definitely sandbagging.
4. Aston Martin has closed the gap to the top-3 teams, with Vettel’s times less than a second off, which was not the case last year.  If their form holds, we could see Vettel or Stroll on a podium or two.
5. We’re not sure about McLaren yet, as their fast times, like Ferrari and Verstappen, were set on the medium tires.
6. Alpine, Haas, Williams and Alpha Romeo will not be challenging for race wins any time soon.
7. Reliability was an issue for some teams, but that was to be expected during the first test and with all-new cars
8. The teams need to get a handle on the porpoising issue
9. The next test, in Bahrain, will give us a better idea of the pecking order.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Mercedes have picked up right where they left off with the old cars, and gone 1-2 in preseason testing in Barcelona.

With 15 minutes left in the session Lewis Hamilton strapped on a set of red C5 tires (the softest Pirelli brought to the test) and turned the fastest lap of the 3-days, to edge out his new teammate George Russell by 0.1s, also on C5 tires.

The Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were 3rd and 4th, Perez on C4 tires and Verstappen on the medium yellow C3 tires.

Sebastian Vettel’s time of 1m19.824s from the morning session held up to round out the top-5 for Aston Martin.

If not for Vettel sneaking in at P5, the results would have been teammates side-by-side thru the entire top-10. The car remains 99% of the equation in F1.

Final Day 3 Barcelona Test Times