How Ferrari made a Mercedes-style start in testing

We've got used to Mercedes performing strongly out of the box at the start of pre-season testing, reeling off lap after lap in a brand new car. Mercedes did that again this year, but it was outdone by arch-rival Ferrari in terms of laps completed on day one, with Sebastian Vettel topping the timesheets for good measure.

Ferrari managed 169 laps, which equates to two-and-a-half race distances at Barcelona. That is very impressive. Vettel's best lap of 1m18.161s put him almost half-a-second clear of the rest and, even though headline times mean very little at this stage of the game, the fact he couldn't contain his grin after the session confirms this was a great start for Ferrari - "very close to perfection", as he put it.

When cars start running during testing, one of the things I always listen out for is the gearchanges. That's something that is usually optimised as testing goes on, but the Ferrari was as sweet as a nut from the start while others had more trouble.

The trick is balancing the power cut as you change gear. These seamless-shift gearboxes can almost be put into two gears simultaneously but you have to be careful how the power is fed back in or you can get flexing in the driveshaft. If that happens, you can hear a ringing from trackside and that's down to this oscillation in the driveshaft. You want to prevent that happening to avoid the risk of a spike in loads, which can cause a driveshaft failure.

Teams spend a lot of time on the dyno optimising this, but it's never quite the same when you hit the track. After all, there's a rotating tyre attached to it and that is also flexing. But Ferrari had it spot on while others, including Red Bull, still have some work to do on that score.

The Ferrari also looked impressive on track. I saw Vettel braking slightly late once but beyond that it looked very well-balanced with excellent traction. But the Ferrari wasn't the only one, as what really struck me is how impressive all nine cars that ran looked.

They all have consistent levels of downforce. While the corner speeds vary because of all the factors that influence pace - fuel loads, tyre compounds etc - and the overall grip level might be slightly different because they all will have different levels of downforce, what's really impressive is they all look well-balanced, good under braking, strong on traction.

You always know from the start if you are onto a good thing, and this is a good start for Ferrari. One team member told me the car was performing better than the simulation predicted; that's a pretty good place to start from

In past years, you'd see a much bigger variation in what the cars look like on the track, but this was more like watching well-sorted, proven cars lapping on the Spanish Grand Prix weekend in May rather than the first steps of new ones in February.

This also means that it's hard to see a car where there's a direction for them to make gains other than through overall improvement developments. Sometimes you might know if you can improve traction or find a better balance and it will unlock pace but there's not huge gains to be found in any of these cars.

This all comes from the teams becoming ever-more professional and better-equipped. So much work goes on to optimise the set-up of these cars before they ever hit the track and this means the first test is more about track correlating to simulation work rather than, as it used to be, starting off with an unknown package, learning its strengths and weaknesses and making big gains in understanding it.

Ferrari's lap time looks good on paper, but the team will be honest with itself and not be fooled by that. But the way Vettel spoke after the session, combined with that pace, the laps completed and how the car looks on track does mean something. You always know from the start of testing if you are onto a good thing, and this is a good start for Ferrari. One member of the team told me that the car was performing better on track than the simulation predicted; that's a pretty good place to start the season from.

Looking at the lap times, it's difficult to draw too many conclusions because you don't know the fuel loads and the programmes. But the big teams won't trick themselves and there's no doubt Ferrari hasn't yet pushed its pace to the limit.

The overall lap times did catch the eye given their pace compared to last year, but this track was resurfaced at the beginning of 2018 and it's become quicker over the 12 months since. That makes it difficult to compare lap times to last year when it comes to understanding what impact the new rules have had, but it doesn't look like many teams have lost much.

Below is a table that expresses each team's fastest time of the day as a percentage of the outright fastest. The second column adjusts this pace for the tyre compound used compared to what compound was on the fastest car, in this case Vettel in the Ferrari, using a step of half-a-second between each compound as a best guess given that Pirelli hasn't worked out the exact difference yet. Finally, there's a column comparing the average performance of each car from day one of this test to the final four races of last year.

Behind Vettel, Carlos Sainz Jr was second fastest in the McLaren. That's where the order starts to look a bit unnatural, and you'd have to assume he was on a lighter fuel load and the fact he used the C4 tyre, the fastest used on day one, suggests McLaren was trying to get a decent time and start this season on a positive note.

But the fact it could do this says that there weren't other big problems to tackle, so it is a good start for McLaren too, which is exactly what was needed, even though it's not going to be among the big three once the serious stuff starts.

For the big teams, missing a day would be less of a problem because of the sheer depth of resources, but Williams needs to learn how to get the best out of its car on the track. It's sad to see a great team in this situation

The Haas also looked good in the hands of Romain Grosjean, much like last year, but again that car's not going to be among the top three. To get to Mercedes, you have to look down the order with both drivers two seconds off Ferrari. It was clear watching the Mercedes on track that it was very heavy and sluggish, so the team will be focusing on its planned programme and have no interest in any glory runs. Its best times were set on a harder compound to that used by Ferrari.

That doesn't mean Ferrari was running on the sniff of an oily rag. All the top teams will know they have pace in the car and have other things to work on at this stage of testing, they don't need to find out exactly how much - certainly not this early. So it's hardly a bad start for Mercedes, even if Ferrari has upstaged it.

But with so many teams completing a huge number of laps - six managed in excess of 100 - and no cars revealing any particular vices it was a good day for everyone. Well, almost everyone. We already knew Williams wouldn't be running on Monday, but during the course of the day the possibility of not running on Tuesday, or perhaps even on Wednesday, was raised. The car is not ready, and that's a big problem.

Time is tight to build up these new F1 cars and it's not unusual for teams to be up against it. But the car is only the end result of a huge planning operation that has been going on for something like four months and that's what appears to have fallen down. After all, there are 10 teams in F1, and it's only one team that failed to make it. While we haven't seen the Williams in detail yet, it's not a good start to its season.

For the big teams, missing a day of testing would be less of a problem because of the sheer depth of off-track resources. But Williams still needs to learn how to get the best out of its car out on the racetrack. It's sad to see a great team in this situation. I rate newcomer George Russell and want to see him get a good opportunity - and the same for Robert Kubica, whose comeback is a great story.

All Williams can do now is just focus on doing what it can, what's happened has happened and from here on it just needs to put the best recovery plan in place. It can and must learn from the mistake, but when you are on the cliff-face the key is not to fall. So Williams has to make the best of it and hopefully get its car on the track later this week.

Tuesday will be an interesting day as we will see some of the newcomers having a run - Pierre Gasly in the Red Bull and Antonio Giovinazzi in the Alfa Romeo included. But I'm really looking forward to seeing Charles Leclerc on his first proper day as a Ferrari driver. The old pros were running on Monday, but it will be nice to see some more youthful spirit on day two.