Who's hot and who's not after F1 winter testing

ESPN rounds up how every team fared during the two weeks of pre-season testing in Barcelona and who is in the best shape heading to Australia.

Mercedes

Laps: 1096 (5101km)

Fastest time: 01:19.310 (Valtteri Bottas, Super-soft, Day 6)

An overwhelming sense of déjà vu swept through the Barcelona paddock during the opening week of testing. Over the course of the first four days, Mercedes not only completed 90 laps more than any other team but also set the fastest lap time of the week. Any hope there may have been among rivals that the world champions would trip and stumble as a result of Formula One's new regulations was quickly dashed.

The new W08 emerged on the first day looking every bit the world championship contender. The aerodynamic detailing around the barge boards and floor was on a level unmatched by its rivals, underlining the effort and resources Mercedes devoted to the 2017 project while simultaneously dominating the 2016 season last year. The intended development rate of the new car also became clear in the first two days as the W08 featured three different variants of a shark-fin engine cover -- including a novel design with a cooling vent that is likely to feature at hotter rounds. In the second week, the developments stepped up again as the openings to the sidepods were tightened and the barge boards made more complex. While some of its rivals were still struggling with the fundamentals, Mercedes was already on the search for ever more performance from the new regulations.

But it wasn't all plain sailing. On the final day of the first test, telemetry data raised an alarm on the engine and the second week started with lost track time due to a damaged floor. The power unit concerns appeared to be solved with the introduction of a new engine in the second week, but both drivers reported inconsistencies in the car's handling throughout week two as new aero upgrades were added to the car.

In terms of pure pace, using like-for-lie super-soft compound tyres, Mercedes' fastest lap (set by Valtteri Bottas) was 0.676s off Ferrari's best. In recent years Mercedes has run heavier fuel loads than Ferrari during qualifying-style runs in testing, which has led to the assumption that the Silver Arrows are much closer to the front than those times suggest. What's more, if the W08's tricky handling traits can be ironed out and the power unit stretched that bit further for a true qualifying lap, it may still be business as usual when it comes to qualifying in Australia. LE

Red Bull

Laps: 684 (3184 km)

Fastest lap: 01:19.438 (Max Verstappen, Super-soft, Day 8)

For a team that lobbied so hard to keep pre-season testing in Europe rather than the Middle East, it was disappointing to see how little the RB13 developed over the course of the two weeks in Barcelona. The relative proximity of Barcelona to Milton Keynes was supposed to suit Red Bull's penchant for leaving manufacturing to the last minute to maximise development time, but it seems we will have to wait until Melbourne for the first major upgrade package. Instead Red Bull presented one of the cleanest and most tightly packaged cars in Barcelona and diligently set about understanding the basics rather than muddying the waters with multiple updates at the start of each test day.

But even with a relatively straightforward approach to testing, Red Bull's two weeks were not without issues. On his final day in the car Daniel Ricciardo was not particularly happy with the feel of the RB13 and a series of reliability issues related to the Renault power unit could result in a frustrating start to the year if they return at the races.

On the plus side, Max Verstappen used a set of super-soft tyres on the final day to set a lap time just shy of Mercedes' best effort, hinting at the potential within the package. His turn of pace is made all the more encouraging when you consider that Renault's power units were not able to run at full power due to an overheating MGU-K. On the face of it that's a bad thing, but the issue was detected on Viry Chatillon's dynos ahead of testing and is on schedule to be fixed in time for Melbourne. Therefore, the combination of an on-song Renault power unit and an enhanced aerodynamic package could give Red Bull the boost it needs to go from third place in testing to the front row in Melbourne. LE

Ferrari

Laps: 956 (4450km)

Fastest lap: 01:18.634 (Kimi Raikkonen, Super-soft, Day 8)

From the moment the first pictures emerged of the new Ferrari it was clear that Maranello had done something different. The structure of the sidepods are unlike any other car, with a vane at the front to meet the angles and dimensions set out in the regulations and the actual sidepod openings set further back and at 90 degrees to the rest of the chassis. The SF70H's development started under the technical directorship of James Allison and its fundamental design principles would have been ideas that germinated under his watch. The finer details -- as well as the car's ongoing development -- have been continued under current technical director Mattia Binotto, and the transition between the two does not appear to have had the negative effect some had feared.

Perhaps learning from the lessons of last year, Ferrari attempted to keep pre-season testing a low-key affair. The drivers were only permitted to speak to the press once a week, senior management kept their opinions within the engineering office and the car was launched without so much as a press release. But when the fuel loads came down and the softest tyres were bolted on, there was no masking the SF70H's impressive pace. Despite missing the apexes at Turns 5 and 10, Raikkonen set a lap time 0.676s clear of Mercedes on the final day with a headline-grabbing 1:18.634. The overriding impression was that the Ferrari was not only quick, but that there is significantly more to come.

From trackside the SF70H looks impressive in both low and high-speed corners and over the course of the two weeks it also demonstrated impressive reliability. Ferrari's lap count in testing was only second to Mercedes', with just a few minor hiccups occasionally keeping the car in the garage (one of which was Raikkonen spinning at Turn 3 on the second day of the second test). Yet for all the positives, there is still a reluctance among those in the paddock to get excited about Ferrari's pre-season performance. The promise of testing a year ago and the struggle that followed still weighs heavy on F1's collective consciousness, and as a result Ferrari's revival will only be truly convincing once the Italian national anthem rings out from the podium. LE

Force India

Laps: 785 (3654km)

Fastest lap: 01:20.116 (Sergio Perez, Ultra-soft, Day 8)

Minor reliability issues led to limited mileage in the first week, but fixes were put in place by week two and the new Force India started to rack up the laps. However, as the testing miles clocked up, the weaknesses in the chassis came to the fore and it wasn't long before Sergio Perez made clear that the team still has plenty of work to do. It's not entirely clear whether solutions will be ready in time for Australia, but the drivers have reportedly been asked to shed a few kilos to make up for an overweight chassis.

As a result, Vijay Mallya's lofty ambitions of breaking into the top three are likely to be parked and replaced by a simple target of remaining in the top five as the season progresses. Williams, Renault, Toro Rosso and Haas have all made decent steps forward over the winter and on the basis of testing Force India could struggle to finish in the points on outright performance. The VJM10's strong reliability in the second week might allow the team to keep its points ticking over at the early rounds while the factory works towards a major upgrade for the Spanish Grand Prix in May. LE

Williams

Laps: 800 (3724km)

Fastest lap: 01:19.420 (Felipe Massa, Ultra-soft, Day 6)

Williams goes into the opening round of the season as the team most likely to fill the gap between the top three and the midfield. Felipe Massa's best lap time in the second test put the FW40 as the third fastest car on outright pace, although when the times are tyre-compound corrected the Red Bull moves back ahead. After two costly mistakes in the first week, Lance Stroll bounced back in the second week to build his confidence behind the wheel and rack up the laps ahead of his rookie season. There's no disguising the fact that the team lost valuable time in the first test, but the car's impressive reliability helped it play catch up in week two. Stroll's billionaire father also laid on his private jet to help fly parts from the UK to Barcelona, speeding up the process of bringing updates and replacement parts to the car.

In the hands of Felipe Massa, the FW40 looked planted and genuinely quick. For a team that cannot afford to develop at the pace of F1's biggest three, a solid starting point is essential and it appears as though Williams has just that. If one or more of the top three teams slips up during the opening rounds, Massa and Stroll will be in a very strong position to take advantage. LE

McLaren

Laps: 425 (1978km)

Fastest lap: 01:21.348(Stoffel Vandoorne, Ultra-soft, Day 7)

One of the many memorable quotes from the British comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth sums up McLaren-Honda's current predicament: "This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you have a moment, it's a twelve-storey crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying 'This Is a Large Crisis'".

Honda suffered an engine issue on the first morning of pre-season and testing seemed to unravel from there. Numerous engine changes over the course of the first week did not solve the issues for week two; with further problems on day six leading to a scathing assessment from Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard labelled the manufacturer's power unit McLaren's "only problem" and predicted a straight-line speed deficit of 30 km/h on each straight. He cut a frustrated figure during his media sessions, something which has already led to questions about how his patience will last if Honda is uncompetitive for a third straight season.

McLaren's issues were so extreme that when it did emerge from the garage, it never did so for more than 11 laps at a time, as it was reduced to working through its checklist in whichever way it could. The team finished with the lowest mileage of any and has less in eight days than Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Marcus Ericsson completed individually while splitting duties with their teammates. The most damming statistic of all was its meagre mileage tally of 1978km -- to compare, Mercedes and its customer teams completed 12497 km; Renault, Red Bull and Toro Rosso completed 8681 km; Ferrari and Haas completed 7778 km.

Honda boss Yusuke Hasegawa has since admitted he is "a little scared" by the thought of the manufacturer's performance deficit to its rivals and has already written off a strong result for the season opener in Melbourne. The removal of the restrictive engine development token system means Honda has every chance to catch up in 2017 if it gets its head around the issues which plagued the last two weeks, assuming the reliability and performance issues are easy fix and not due to a fundamental flaw with its engine. McLaren looks set for a painful start to the season... Again. NS

Toro Rosso

Laps: 584 (2718km)

Fastest lap: 01:19.837 (Carlos Sainz, Ultra-soft, Day 8)

For all the excitement generated by the visually stunning STR12, Toro Rosso had a fairly disappointing winter. On its launch, many noted the similarities between the STR12's nose and front suspension to that of Mercedes' W08, while it came into pre-season bolstered by an up-to-date Renault engine after running 2015 Ferrari power in 2016. But that switch to Renault led to immediate reliability issues, costing the team an entire day at the end of the first week and contributing to the team leaving Barcelona with it the second-lowest amount of laps of any team.

Despite the early issues with Renault, the team is positive about its new engine deal, with James Key saying during the winter that it has turned a "huge corner" in terms of performance. Carlos Sainz gave a hint at the team's true performance with a low-fuel lap at the end of the final day, which yielded the fifth fastest time of the winter -- though headline times mean little until qualifying begins in Melbourne. Toro Rosso's prospects of moving up the pecking order still look good this season but it will hope the early issues it encountered over the winter are an anomaly and not a sign of things to come during 2017. NS

Haas

Laps: 715 (3328km)

Fastest lap: 01:20.504 (Kevin Magnussen, Ultra-soft, Day 7)

Arguably one of the star performers of the winter tests. Twelve months ago, Haas came into the Australian Grand Prix off the back of a rotten second week of its first-ever F1 pre-season test. At the end of last year, its form tailed off dramatically as it suffered a litany of brake problems and issues with tyre warm-up. Some in the paddock were expecting second-season syndrome this year, but early signs are that's not going to be the case. Aside from the odd delay here and there the team avoided major issues during the tests -- a good indicator about its readiness for the new season.

Not only did the team nearly double its mileage from 2016, it ran for the entire two weeks without requiring an engine change. Brake issues linger and the team hopes to find a solution early in the season, but overall the mood around the Banbury-based team should be extremely positive. Haas' form vindicated the belief that Ferrari has made a good step forward this season, with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both giving good feedback about the engine during the pre-season tests. Off track there are also reasons to be encouraged, with the team's operation running more smoothly now than it did at any point in its debut season. NS

Renault

Laps: 597 (2779km)

Fastest lap: 01:19.885 (Nico Hulkenberg, Ultra-soft, Day 8)

Renault comes into the new season in much better shape than it did last year, but obvious problems remain. The French manufacturer hopes changes it makes to the engine before Australia solve ongoing problems with the Energy Recovery System (ERS), a constant bugbear in Barcelona. Though reliability still looks shaky, performance looks to be much-improved, with the team predicting an initial gain of 0.3s per lap from its revamped 2017 engine.

The team anticipated the ERS problem before the winter, making its reliability dramas over winter less dramatic than Honda's seemingly endless list of new, unexpected issues. New recruit Nico Hulkenberg has taken a cautious tone in his first weeks in yellow and black, saying the team is currently at the lower end of the tight midfield battle forming ahead of the Australian Grand Prix and may not be immediately in the mix for points. There were encouraging voices coming from within the camp, too. Jolyon Palmer reported a much more driveable car to last year, hinting that the team has learned the lessons from its difficult transition period following the late takeover of Lotus ahead of the 2016 season. NS

Sauber

Laps: 787 (3663km)

Fastest lap: 01:22.347 (Marcus Ericsson, Ultra-soft, Day 7)

It's hard to imagine anything but a frustrating season off the pace for Sauber. Though it ran reliably in Barcelona, it was often in the lower reaches of the timing screens -- proof that having the 2016 Ferrari power unit is already a disadvantage at this stage of the season. Ferrari and Mercedes, especially, seem to have made bigger-than-expected gains with the latest iterations of their 2017 engines, meaning the gap between the front and back looks set to grow as the season unfolds.

One of the motivations behind Sauber's decision to stick with 2016 power this season was to focus on aerodynamic development, but a lack of new parts through the winter highlighted the fact this is a team still operating on the margins financially. The new season has all the hallmarks of a throwaway year as the team consolidates its off-track operation and learns valuable lessons for 2018, when it will hope to be back on a level-playing field in terms of engines. NS