🐟After three days of running - the equivalent of 24 hours of track time - Formula 1’s opening pre-season test has drawn to a c🀅lose. 

A major overhaul to F1’s technical regulations has teased the tantalising prospect of a potential reset to the competitive order, leaving a real sense of excitement that this 𒊎season could end up being 🦂a wide-open contest. 

Yet it was Me𓄧rcedes, the team whicౠh has dominated F1 since the sport’s last big rules shake-up in 2014, who locked out the timing sheets at the end of the first test. 

Indeed, it is very early days in the 2022 season and F1’s new era, making it difficult to draw any solid conclusions, but Barcelona at least provided an initial🐟 impression as to whi🐷ch teams have started well, and which still have some work to do. 

Who looks good?

Mercedes grabbed the headlines on t♔he final day of running as Lewis Hamilton unleashed late pace on the C5 compounds to produce a 1m19.138s and put himself 0.095s clear of teammate George Russell. 

The German man🎃ufacturer had a quiet start to the opening test but provided a g♏limpse of the potential of its W13 with runs on Pirelli’s softest available compound on Friday. Mercedes’ 2022 challenger completed the second-highest amount of laps with 393.

But seven-time world champion Hamilton admitted Mercedes has had to 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:overcome “obstacles” this week. As well as suggesting that not everything had been plain sailing for the reigning world champions, Hamilton was quick to downplay his pace.&nbs🧸p;

Asked if he had an ideไa of where Mercedes stands, Hamilton said: “You never do on the first week, you never do. We have ♊no idea where everyone is.” 

Teammate Russell also wanted not to take the lap times too seriouslඣy. It can be easy to get wrapped up in tꦚhe times but they are fairly irrelevant given that key parameters such as fuel loads, engine settings, and how much the driver is pushing, are unknown. 

"Lap time-wise, I don🀅't think it's representative at all,” Russell🐬 said. 

"Even though we are top of the timesheets, I wouldn't read 🃏too much into it.  We have some improvements to make, as we're not fully happy with the balance of the car and the limitations we haꩵve currently. 

“But w꧑e have a good indication of the direction we need to go in.”

And Russell was keen to point out that it had been a strong op𓆉ening test for former F1 powerhouses Ferrari and McLaren. Both teams spent spells at the top of the order on Wednesday and Thursday and logged impressive mileage. 

Ferrari’s combined haul of 4🦂39 was the most of any team, while McLaren slotted into t🍰hird with 367, just over 20 laps shy of Mercedes. 

Despite McLaren's hugely positive start, Lando Norris, who topped the first day, is convinced Mercedes and Red Bull will still be the teams to beat when the sea♔son gets underway in Bahrain on March 20.

𒐪“I think if there’s any team on the grid right now that you expect to be at the front when it matters it’s going to be Mercedes an🌠d probably Red Bull,” he explained. 

“I don’t think we’re in an amazing place. I think we’re in a good place. We had a car which as soon as we put it on the track worked well and of course, there’s always some new things and some unexp⭕ected issues here and there, but it’s been a good start.”

While Hamilton may have completed a late ‘glory’ run, Red Bull appears in no rush to show its hand. Sergio Perez and reigning world champion Max Verstappen ended up 3-4 behind Mercedes a♊nd set their quickest laps on harder tyres.

The Milton Keynes squad turned heads when the RB18 - featur🌳ing an extremely aggressive aerodynamic package - broke cover in public for the first time on Wednesday. 

But the🃏 team went quietly about its business and racked up plenty of miles. Red Bull’s tot🐻al lap count only took a hit when Perez lost running on the second morning when he pulled over with a gearbox issue to bring out the first red flag of testing.

“What is positive is that the car is running smoothly,” su🧔mmarised Verstappen. “I don’t pay attention to the lap times just yet, I will look into that when we get into Q3 in Bahrain. 

“I just🐲 focus on doing a lot of laps and nailing down every single aspect of the car. I have really enjoyed driving the RB18 this week, it has a nice stable balance.” 

Who has work to do? 

Alfa Romeo and Haas certainly look on the back foot heading into the sec👍ond test in Bah൩rain, with both being plagued by issues across all three days in Spain. 

The former’s has in part been linked to the phenomenon known as ‘porpoising’, something that has returned to F1 with the move to ground-effect technology. It is a problem that occurs when the airflow under the car is disrupted when travelling above🎶 a certain speed on the straights, resulting in a bizarre and dramatic bouncing effect that lurches the car ꧋up and down. 

Porpoising is a problem because it leads to a🍸 loss of downforce and can cause instability. It has been highlighted by a number of drivers as being a potential safety concern, particularly in high-speed corners, and is something almost all of the teams have struggled with at some stage throughout the opening test. 

"We're doing 300km/h and jumping 30-40mm up and down,” said Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. “It’s ꦕannoying🌳. Hopefully it's resolved and it's not something we need to live with because it's quite on the limit.

"You have to trust the engineers that it is going to keep getting better as we learn the ground-effec🌺t cars.”

Guanyu Zhou triggered two red flags on Friday m♐orning, while fellow new Alfa Romeo signing Valtteri Bottas only managed a handful of laps in the aftꩵernoon before he failed to re-emerge with an unspecified issue.

Alfa Romeo and Haas completed the fewest laps altogether, with 175 an🥂d 160 respectiv🐼ely. 

American-owned Haas, whose week was overꦉshadowed by a difficult sponsor and driver saga in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, suffered multiple gremlins that kept Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin garage-bound for long periods, including the whole of Friday afternoon. 

Alpine and Aston Martin also faced a premature end to the test afte♎r Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel each came to a fi🅺ery stop on track. Alpine traced Alonso’s issue down to a hydraulics problem, while Vettel’s stoppage was the result of an oil leak. 

It was a frustrating end to the first test for Alpine give🍃n it has high hopes of moving closer to the💛 front of the grid in 2022.

Will F1's new cars make racing better? 

From an aest🐠hetics standpo꧙int, F1’s latest-generation cars have gone down a storm with drivers and fans alike. 

But the main reason the rules were introduced was to improve raci😼ng. So has that been achieve🧔d? 

Many drivers reported the regulations have successfully made it easier to follow a car ahead, including Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and Verstappen, who was encourꦯaged by hi🃏s early experiences in Barcelona. 

"I've been following a few cars, a𝓡nd it seems like it's a little bit easier to stay behꦇind," the Red Bull driver said. 

"At least you don't have this weird loss o𝓰f down𓆉force where suddenly you have a lot of understeer or massive oversteer.

“Of course, ꧋I don't expect it to be fully gone and that you can follow on the rear diffuser, because of the speeds we're still doing in an F1 car, but it all seems a bit more under control. The cars are fine."

However, some appear to remai🍷n skeptical about how good the on-track spectacle wi🌞ll be. 

Russell noted that🐼 while following may be easier, overtaking could actually prove to be harder because of a less effective slipstream. 

“I think the following has been improved but the slipstream effect has ꧅been reduced quite subst♑antially, so I don't really know,” he said. 

“You obviously need that delta in the straights to overtake because you can only overtake at the end of a straight and into a corner. We can fo🎀llow closer but from what we have seen, the slipstream effect is definitely less effec♑tive. 

“We will have to wait and see. I got right up behind 💝Lando, I was a car-length or two behind him and didn't catch him on 💜the straight, so that was slightly concerning so let's see.” 

Norris added: “The following in the co🎃rner is an improvement. We can follow closer but then the slipstream is worse. 

“So a positive and a negative from it. We don't know which is the bigger effect 🦩at the minute, so we will have to see until the first race.”