Rating the 2019 F1 grid from trackside

Watching the new cars from trackside at the first test allows you to get a read on how they are performing, which ones are well-balanced, who is struggling with a weakness, who is in good shape, and who has some work to do.

Based on what I've seen from around the circuit over the first three days of testing at Barcelona, other than the Williams that I've only seen cruise past once, none of the teams have too much to worry about.

That doesn't mean they are all the same pace, because downforce levels will vary and there is a spread of performance. But none of the cars have any major vices and right from the first day they looked like proven cars that were in the middle of a season rather than straight out of the box.

But there are still differences, and while analysing lap times gives us a good steer on how the pecking order might shake out, there are still some things to learn from what we see on circuit.

Mercedes

Mercedes mainly concentrated on race running on Wednesday with both Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, so it never looked like the most lively car on the track.

For some reason, the team decided to do all of its stints on the C2 compound, which is probably the hardest compound that will be used for the majority of the season. Probably it was to ensure the car remained consistent, and by staying on that tyre the degradation was reduced.

Out on track, the lap times stayed fairly stable, but that means the degradation was there because as the fuel load goes down the car should get quicker. Over the long runs you could hear the amount of time the drivers spent off the throttle was increasing, and that led to lower corner speeds than some. But the car didn't have any visible balance problems.

The Mercedes team is in a solid position. It is building its understanding of the car and hopefully on Thursday we'll see more of a performance run.

Ferrari

The Ferrari looks really good on track, probably the best that we've seen. We're not so confident about what fuel loads it is carrying because Ferrari hasn't done a 66-lap run without heading into the garage, but even so it looks so consistent.

The drivers can place the car very well. There are no lock-ups, the rear is not nervous, and that's why I believe this is such a good package. Yes, fuel loads can impact the lap times, but on track it looks right. Ferrari has the basis it needs to build from.

But we haven't seen the drivers looking like they have gone beyond cruise control and worked hard, so that effort might not come until Mercedes starts to push a little harder.

Watching at Campsa, the fast, uphill right-hander, any movement of the car was very controlled and not snappy. The car will always move a little, but it's just a nice gentle drift rather than anything horrible for the driver.

Red Bull

The Red Bull does look good on track and the drivers can turn in aggressively to corners such as Campsa and Turn 1, knowing the front end and the rear will stick.

Max Verstappen seems to be very happy with the RB15, and the Honda engine, so we haven't seen anything like the potential of the car as yet. But I've not seen it do anything unpredictable and the speed can be carried into the corner with confidence. Other than Pierre Gasly's crash on Tuesday, when he didn't quite catch the rear, things have looked very under control.

It bodes well for the top three teams that their cars look so well-balanced, so it could come down to the power units to make the difference. Interestingly, the Honda sounds less distinctive and raspy than it did last year from trackside, so clearly there have been changes there.

Renault

Renault has spent much of the test not showing its true hand, although Daniel Ricciardo did wind it up in the final hour of Wednesday and get into the low 1m18s bracket. I suspect the team is still waiting for some bits and pieces for performance, as so much of the running has been about getting the homework done on the car.

Renault does appear to be in the ballpark and the balance looks good, although a bit more downforce won't hurt as it does appear to lag behind the top three.

Many of the cars are running a lot of rake but the Renault is doing something unusual. When you look at the front wing endplate through the long Turn 3 right-hander, it seems to be closer to the ground than the others so that suggest the car rolls more. It may just be the stiffness of the car and the amount of rake it is running.

Watching at Turn 2, Ricciardo had some wide and sparky moments out of there this afternoon. If you drop the outside wheels at that corner, that will happen because there is a bit of a dip in the road at the edge of the track. But that part of the road is not the best place to be and makes Turn 3 difficult, so the only reason you'd be there is if you don't have the same grip as the top cars, which can pull back more aggressively for a better and wide approach into the right hander that follows.

Haas

Last year's Haas was a good, quick, well-balanced car and its successor seems to the same. When you see the car turn into the corner, there's no significant movement of any sort that you pick up. In the first sequence of corners, and at Campsa, it turns in well and is very stable.

The biggest problem is that it has stopped on track too much. It doesn't matter how fast you are, you don't want that to happen. But if that's the biggest criticism at this stage, things look good for Haas.

It looks like a car that is good enough to be in the fight at the front of the midfield, and if the team tidies up some of the problems of 2018 then it could be on for a good year. Certainly, Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean and test driver Pietro Fittipaldi seem to be able to get the car to respond well.

McLaren

McLaren is a difficult team to place. At the end of the first two days, it seemed to use 'happy hour' to its maximum to set the second-fastest lap time using the C4 tyres. There was more than one push lap at a time, so it's clear McLaren was keen to get a time and running lower fuel than many. And there's no criticism there because you need to know how the car behaves in those conditions.

It was interesting watching Lando Norris through Campsa on Tuesday. He drives the car differently to the rest, dropping down an extra gear to get the front to turn in sharper by rotating the rear better. Then he changes back up 20-30 metres later. He doesn't want that torque on the throttle so short shifts up, effectively to control the traction.

Carlos Sainz Jr doesn't do it that way so it might be something they need to chat about as it might lead to a set-up variation if they are going to continue to do different things.

Racing Point

The new Racing Point has been a bit off, and it hasn't had as much track time because of some little problems, which perhaps explains why the lap times aren't as good as they should be.

Once out on track it doesn't look like a bad package, it's doing everything right and there are quite a few developments still to come. So, it's a question of making the best of what it has got, sorting the reliability and understanding, rather than chasing glory.

A lot of attention was being paid to braking with big brake stops on Wednesday - slowing far more than would be normal. It might just be the way they warm up and you need to do that to balance the cooling ducts.

But on track, there's nothing to be too worried about even though the car does need more grip.

Alfa Romeo

It's looking good for Alfa Romeo, which had Kimi Raikkonen in the car on Wednesday. He is a good yardstick and hasn't lost his talent despite being long in the tooth.

When the car is lapping, you can see they are trying because and doing their best times as the drivers are scrabbling over kerbs and attacking. Like McLaren, the times are coming from trying to run the car in performance trim.

On Wednesday, the grip level did seem to go away at times at the rear and it was giving up. But it was less of a problem in the first sequence of corners than at Campsa and it might just have been the balance on that stint.

Toro Rosso

If I had to pick a car from the nine that have completed serious running, this looks like the one that has the least grip. It's the one car that you can see just does not have that commitment and sharpness when going through Turn 3.

It's not oversteering or understeering, but does look lazy and slightly on the move over the track surface.

Last year, we saw it with the Sauber. It was running out of road earlier than the other ones in testing in the long, fast Turn 3 right-hander and this year it was the Toro Rosso doing that.

It is difficult to assess why, but I wouldn't say it's a balance problem, just about downforce and grip.

On Thursday, we will hopefully see more representative lap times from the leading cars and more race runs - as well as some significant running for the Williams after George Russell's 23 laps on Wednesday.

With three days down, it looks close and when the drivers start to push a bit harder perhaps we will start to see some more weaknesses exposed.