Ferrari changes Barcelona F1 test driving plan after Vettel crash

The team has now decided to drop its planned schedule of alternating its drivers between the morning and afternoon sessions, and instead Vettel and team-mate Charles Leclerc will each get a full day of running.

A Ferrari statement explained that it had decided to have its drivers "do a complete day each at the wheel, so that the work can progress in a more linear fashion.

"Charles will drive tomorrow [Thursday], before handing over to Sebastian for the final day."

Vettel had a heavy impact with the barriers at the outside of the Barcelona track's Turn 3 after an unspecified mechanical failure apparently occurred at the front of the car.

He had only completed 40 laps at that stage, and while the car was repaired an investigation into the cause of the accident was undertaken.

Leclerc, who was due to drive for the whole of Wednesday's afternoon session, was only able to undertake an installation lap at the end of the day.

The Monagasque driver also had limited mileage on Tuesday morning due to issues with the Ferrari.

"But surely the plan is always to fulfil your programme, so we had [intended to get] more laps on the board than 40 this morning.

"It's not ideal and we're losing some time."

But Vettel remains optimistic about the progress his team has made so far in testing.

"Overall, we're still strong, the car feels good," he said.

"We've been exploring a lot of things since day one and I think the last week has been very productive, also [on Tuesday] at least we could recover some of the track time lost in the morning.

"So overall I'm still positive about the car and the feeling inside the car."