Mercedes’ prolific running means it has concluded its Formula 1 testing at Barcelona already having completed considerably more mileage than any other team.
An incredibly productive three days at Barcelona for both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli ended Mercedes’ week at 500 laps exactly – more than 2300 kilometres of the Spanish Grand Prix venue.
Teams can run on three of five days from Monday to Friday and Mercedes wrapped up its allocation on Thursday having also run Monday and Wednesday.
The next-busiest team, Racing Bulls, ran the same schedule and has also ended its test with 319 laps completed.
But Ferrari is likely to have the second most productive test after Mercedes as its two days of testing, having only started on Tuesday, have already yielded 297 laps.
At the other end, Aston Martin’s arrival late in the day on Thursday meant it managed just four laps before stopping on-track.
Other teams lacking mileage going into the final day are new works team Audi, new entrant Cadillac, and reigning world champion McLaren after a fuel system problem on Thursday.
Laps completed by team
This is obviously reflected in what each engine manufacturer has achieved this week.
Mercedes is well clear of Ferrari while new manufacturer Red Bull Powertrains has had an impressive first showing with the two Red Bull teams.
But Audi’s having an underwhelming first F1 test despite prioritising reliability and mileage with the form of its initial package – and Honda’s engine has had the most minor of shakedowns in the Aston Martin.
Laps completed by engine manufacturer
Mercedes is not only the busiest team at Barcelona this week. It has also been comfortably quick, as much value as that holds at this stage of testing.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have traded fastest times this week, with both the only drivers to go below 1m18s - and Russell even setting a 1m16.445s.
Monday pacesetter Isack Hadjar is still third quickest so far, but is 1.7s slower than Russell.
As this is still such an early stage of testing, and some drivers have not had much mileage, the field spread is abnormally large.
Even discounting Lance Stroll’s installation lap 1m46.404s there is a nine-second gap from Russell to Gabriel Bortoleto, who only managed a limited amount of running on Monday before a technical problem ended Audi’s day.
Newcomer Cadillac is currently 4.6s off the pace, level with Audi and 1.6s off the next team – but it is no surprise to see such a strong correlation between the number of laps a driver has completed and where they are on the unofficial testing leaderboard.
Fastest times
Laps completed by driver
