One more chance before the racing begins

The third and final test of the winter before the Australian Grand Prix opener is about to begin, taking place from the 27^th February to the 2^nd March in Bahrain. This is one final chance for all the teams to perfect their cars in readiness for the racing to begin. Now, I’m not sure any team will really be ready, even Mercedes who have had a good winter are still encountering problems, although it has to be said not nearly as many as some teams.

Renault powered teams

All eyes will be on Red Bull as they strive for some meaningful mileage before Melbourne. All the Renault powered teams have had struggles, with perhaps Lotus looking the quickest out of the four, Caterham the most reliable and Red Bull and Toro Rosso just not getting anywhere fast.

But that doesn’t really say very much, in fact as much as times don’t mean anything when your lap times are over five, six or seven seconds off the pace surely alarm bells are ringing? Admittedly with the reliability issues these teams have been suffering, going all out in a qualifying simulation isn’t going to be high on the agenda. First of all they need to be able to finish a race, that’s the only way you’ll pick up prizes.

I’m afraid so far none of them have looked quick, or even given us a flash of speed. I’ve no doubt Red Bull at least will find solutions, but I hope it’ not too late for them to be involved in the title fight. It would be much more satisfying to see Red Bull beaten while challenging for wins. Then again the 2014 fight began almost two years ago such was the huge regulation changes and at the moment it looks like they just haven’t done as good a job? The second Bahrain test is crucial if we are going to see any progress.

Mercedes powered teams

Testing is meaningless, we all get that. But some things become patently obvious given enough evidence. What we’ve learnt so far is that the Mercedes engine cars are in a good position. No, let me add a little flair to that, they’re in another reality compared to most other teams, where power units work, with speed and reliability, where race simulations are a possibility and set up is being refined and out and out raw speed is beginning to be demonstrated.

It’s been a good start for the Mercedes powered lot, all four teams haven’t suffered with too much reliability troubles and all have made progress and topped the time sheets at some point over the eight days of testing we’ve had so far.

The Mercedes works team have been demonstrably the most reliable and fastest of all the teams so far. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg both set times at the first Bahrain test which were simply out of reach of the others.  

It isn’t too much of a surprise, they’ve been concentrating on their 2014 car for quite some time, and it’s been long rumoured that the power unit was going to be a star. Also it should be noted that last time there was a significant rules change in 2009, in their former guise of Brawn, they exploited loop holes to become world champions.

It’s already looking like it could be a Hamilton vs Rosberg season for the championship. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, there will be challengers. One of which is McLaren who look to have put the extremely poor 2013 season firmly behind them. With former team principal Ron Dennis back with a hand on the race team and former Lotus boss Eric Boullier effectively replacing Martin Whitmarsh, it’s all change at the Woking squad.

At the moment it all looks for the better, as they appear to be the only ones capable of challenging Mercedes with both Jenson Button and rookie Kevin Magnussen showing some good speed and consistency. They will want to make full use of what looks like the best power unit out there and gain one last title with the German manufacturer (built in Britain) before switching to Honda in 2015.

Williams have made great progress and with the addition of Rob Smedley from Ferrari as well as a host of other technical people, they are building themselves up after years in the wilderness. Nico Hulkenberg’s return to Force India looks like a good choice too. In fact at the moment all four teams look good, surely this test for them is about working on set up and race simulations? This final test will tell us more but at the moment it wouldn’t be so much of a surprise to see all these teams in the top 10 after qualifying which would be a great shuffle of the order. As I said before let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but it’s fun isn’t it?

Ferrari powered units

Sauber have occasionally looked quick once they’d got their updates on at the second test, but apparently they have issues with the fly by wire braking system for the rear of the car, Adrian Sutil stating that he can’t get much feel for it. The other Ferrari customer, Marussia, were making noises about getting into Q2, but so far they haven’t been able to demonstrate nearly enough reliability or speed with an apparent computer virus upsetting them at the last test.

Ferrari look to have decent reliability, so in this final test they’ll be wanting to extract a bit more performance. You can’t judge testing but you would have thought they would have shown a sign that they’re going to be challenging for race wins from the start.

I’m not sure they will but this final test will give us further indication if they’re going to be going for the title or annoying Fernando Alonso as he tries to get that elusive third title. If the car doesn’t have the speed expect Alonso to be getting more annoyed with the team than any challenge he can expect from new team mate Kimi Raikkonen, the last Ferrari world champion.

We’re not going to see the true pecking order until qualifying gets underway in Australia, but this  final test will at least show us what we might expect. At the moment Mercedes and their customers lead the way for me, with Ferrari sort of lurking. Despite their problems I think Red Bull will show some speed by the end of the test which will make the rest sit up and take notice, while Lotus will do the same thing. The other Ferrari and Renault customers are making up the back at the moment.

But that can all change, this final test in Bahrain is certainly one to watch very carefully as we look for answers before Australia.

all photo's taken from autosport.com