Mercedes and Ferrari aim to build on strong starts, as McLaren face big week; Sauber to debut new car, as Toro Rosso unveil livery
Saturday 5 March 2016 10:54, UK
F1 teams will have just four days of track running left to hone their cars for 2016's season-opening Australian GP next month when the second and final test begins at Barcelona on Tuesday.
Despite the new-for-2016 cars taking to the track for the first time just six days ago, the shortest pre-season in the sport's history means the second test at the Circuit de Catalunya represents the final chance to work through changes on track before the first practice session in Melbourne on March 18.
Attention will turn to performance and full race simulations during week two - which should provide a more accurate glimpse at 2016's early pecking order.
Sky Sports F1's schedule for the second Barcelona test
World champions Mercedes head into the test already looking in ominous form after they completed the equivalent of 10 Spanish GP race distances with their new seemingly bullet-proof W07 last week.
Lewis Hamilton, who flew to Los Angeles between tests, said he could not wait to "unleash" the car after Mercedes ran almost exclusively on the slower medium tyre. The world champions will continue to alternate Hamilton and Nico Rosberg through the morning and afternoon sessions across the four days.
Although Ferrari set the pace on all but one of the four days in the first test, their car ran into reliability problems and Kimi Raikkonen admitted "there is a good potential but we can still improve".
"I am expecting to see some kind of response from Ferrari," added Sky F1's Ted Kravitz.
"We left Barcelona last week with Mercedes - if it's possible - being even more dominant than when last season ended in Abu Dhabi, and that was a one-two for the team.
"Mercedes brought new things to their car pretty much on every other day of the first test. So we're expecting a new front wing from Ferrari, a new rear wing, a new floor and a new diffuser.
"The first test was all about just bedding the new Ferrari in and getting reliability sorted - which it wasn't, so they'll be hoping to get that sorted as well. Let's see some performance now."
After a wretched 2015, McLaren and engine partners Honda had appeared to finally be on top of reliability too in the early stages of running but problems with the MP4-31 over the final two days mean the partnership are again under pressure for the second test.
Ahead of only Manor in the mileage charts at the half-way point of testing, McLaren's running was curtailed by first a hydraulic leak in the power unit - which forced a change of engine - and then an unrelated coolant leak on Thursday.
"Over the course of the first four days in Barcelona we've done a good amount of running and already learned a lot about our package, which should stand us in good stead for next week," said McLaren's director of engineering Matt Morris.
"At the second test we'll be able to focus more on race simulations and setup, as well as characterising our package's performance."
Honda are introducing revisions to their power unit for the second test, while Jenson Button tweeted there was "a lot of new stuff coming for test two" from McLaren.
Elsewhere, and newcomers Haas enjoyed a productive first week to their F1 journey with the all-new VF-16 showing flashes of potential, while established outfit Williams are likely to join Mercedes in starting to show what their car is capable of after a low-key first week.
Toro Rosso ran their new STR11 in an interim all-navy scheme at test one, but the Red Bull's junior team's more familiar colours are set to reappear this week.
Test Two line-ups so far
Day One, Tuesday March 1
Mercedes: Nico Rosberg (morning); Lewis Hamilton (afternoon)
Ferrari: Kimi Raikkonen
McLaren: Fernando Alonso
Red Bull: Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso: Max Verstappen
Williams: Valtteri Bottas
Force India: Nico Hulkenberg
Sauber: Felipe Nasr
Renault: Kevin Magnussen
Haas: Esteban Gutierrez
Manor: Rio Haryanto
Day Two, Wednesday March 2
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton (morning); Nico Rosberg (afternoon)
Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel
McLaren: Jenson Button
Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo
Toro Rosso: Carlos Sainz
Williams: Valtteri Bottas
Force India: Sergio Perez
Renault: Kevin Magnussen
Sauber: Marcus Ericsson
Haas: Esteban Gutierrez
Manor: TBC
Day Three, Thursday March 3
Mercedes: Nico Rosberg (morning); Lewis Hamilton (afternoon)
Ferrari: Kimi Raikkonen
McLaren: Fernando Alonso
Red Bull: Daniil Kvyat
Force India: Nico Hulkenberg
Toro Rosso: Max Verstappen
Williams: Felipe Massa
Renault: Jolyon Palmer
Sauber: Felipe Nasr
Haas: Romain Grosjean
Manor: TBC
Day Four, Friday March 4
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton (morning); Nico Rosberg (afternoon)
Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel
McLaren: Jenson Button
Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo
Toro Rosso: Carlos Sainz
Williams: Felipe Massa
Force India: Sergio Perez
Renault: Jolyon Palmer
Sauber: Marcus Ericsson
Haas: Romain Grosjean
Manor: TBC
The Sky Sports F1 Digital team will be providing live commentary from dawn until dusk on all four days of the final Barcelona test while Sky Sports News HQ will also deliver live updates from trackside.
