How do WEC's big-hitters stack up for 2016?

Porsche held sway at the official World Endurance Championship test at Paul Ricard, but it's too early to jump to conclusions ahead of the Silverstone series opener on April 17 - the reigning champion was always going to lead the way at the so-called 'prologue'.

It would be wrong to read too much into the times from two days of running around Circuit Paul Ricard last week. Or at least the gap between the uprated version of last year's championship-winning 919 Hybrid and its rivals.

The 2016-spec 919 Hybrid led the way in each of the five sessions over the two days of the test. Brendon Hartley ended up with the fastest time, a 1m37.445s set on Saturday afternoon that narrowly eclipsed Neel Jani's 1m37.487s from Friday's night session.

That left Porsche ahead of its closest rival by eight tenths of a second, Stephane Sarrazin setting the third best time of 1m38.273s in the high-downforce version of the new Toyota on Saturday morning. The latest Audi was a further half second back with a 1m38.827s from Benoit Treluyer in the final session that afternoon.

The simple fact is that Porsche was better prepared for the Ricard test than its rivals. It was running an updated version of last year's 919 Hybrid, and many of the components - including new front suspension and the revised powertrain - have been on track since before Christmas. It also arrived at the prologue on the back of a 30-hour simulation at Ricard the previous week, admittedly with the low-downforce 919 destined for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Toyota had only tested its TS050 with last year's rear-end, normally-aspirated V8 included, at Ricard. Its first two tests with the new car were conducted in this way to put vital mileage on the new hybrid and energy-storage systems, so there was inevitably some catching up to do with the twin-turbo V6 in place.

Audi, meanwhile, was effectively running its new LMP1 turbodiesel at the French track for the first time. The new R18 was, said Audi Sport Team Joest boss Ralf Juttner, "a very different car" when it undertook its first shakedown at Ricard back in November.

Porsche ran its two cars - which tested for one day each - in high-downforce configuration, while Toyota converted its solo car from low to high aero ahead of the third session on Friday evening. Audi, running in sprint spec, encountered problems with the R18 it was due to test on both days and had to switch to a second chassis for Saturday. So that means Porsche got the most mileage in Ricard-friendly specification.

Greater significance should arguably be given to Porsche's pace than the gap to its rivals. Its best times around the 3.60-mile track were only two tenths from Jani's fastest lap of last year's prologue.

That came in the face of new rules for 2016 that have robbed the cars of approximately 7.5 per cent of their per-lap fuel allocation, the much talked about 10MJ reduction in energy measured over a lap of Le Mans. Porsche's developments have clearly clawed back some of that loss, but exactly how much is difficult to judge on the evidence of Ricard.

That's because the pair of 919s were running in an aero spec largely similar to that with which Porsche won the final five races of last year's WEC. Twelve months ago, with its eyes firmly focused on the Le Mans 24 Hours, the German manufacturer turned up at the prologue with an interim configuration that wasn't optimised for Ricard in terms of downforce.

"Our times show that we have done some good work over the winter improving the car," Jani told Autosport after the test. "It is not a true comparison, but it is an indication of where we are."

Its Japanese rival was happy with its performance after gaining 1.7s in comparison with last year, an impressive improvement that looks even better when viewed against the regulation changes. What it wasn't doing, according to Toyota Motorsport GmbH technical director Pascal Vasselon, was "jumping up and down".

"Porsche is two tenths slower than last year and we are nearly two seconds faster, so something has changed," he said, while pointing out there is not enough evidence quite yet to "make a true comparison".

Juttner admitted that Audi had "not had the best of winters in terms of quality running", without revealing exactly where and when it had been testing. But he stressed that progress was being made with a radical car that is clearly a complicated beast.

He also pointed out that Ricard was also the first time that Joest, as opposed to Audi's test team, was running the latest R18 in the shape of the two race cars that will be taken to Silverstone for the opening round of the WEC on April 17.

That means there was still a lot to learn last week, particularly when Audi's test mileage over the winter doesn't come close to the totals of its rivals.

"Two to 4MJ last year was a big step, but it was the same system," explained Juttner.

"The new energy storage system [the lithium-ion battery that has enabled Audi to move to the 6MJ hybrid sub-class] has completely different behaviour. The recuperating and boosting needs to have a different strategy behind it, and there we are still on a learning curve."

Juttner said he was confident that Audi would have a quick car by Silverstone and a reliable one too, though "maybe not as bulletproof going into the season as we've had in some seasons".

Audi had a trouble-free day on the Saturday, but stressed that it never went for a time. Porsche and Toyota, on the other hand, admitted they did undertake qualifying simulations. Again, that makes comparisons difficult.

The WEC test at Paul Ricard did prove that the 919 isn't going to be leapfrogged in the same way as the TS040 HYBRID, upgrades or not, was after its championship year in 2014. Toyota and Audi have built all-new cars, as Porsche did for last season, but there's a key difference this time around.

Porsche moved up from the six to eight megajoule class for 2015, giving it an advantage under the regulations - the rules allowed it more total energy per lap. Toyota has made the same jump for this season and Audi's move to 6MJ puts it in the optimum hybrid sub-class for a diesel. Any advancement by Porsche have to come from refining its championship-winning machine.

That means the battle for the WEC title should by definition be closer this season, presuming Toyota and Audi's new machinery is reliable. After that, we only have a few pointers of what is to come this season and the events of Paul Ricard last week barely provided any new ones.

What it did tells us is that the designers and engineers working for the LMP1 manufacturers are a clever bunch with major resources at their disposal. LMP1 lap times will be slower in the WEC this season, but probably not by the margin that the rule makers envisaged.