I have watched some footage of testing and the Merc looks amazingly composed. It's going to be the class leading car by some margin again.

 

Talk about stating the bleedin' obvious Ron.

 

The second and final pre-season test got under way today. The new Sauber was unveiled, so all of the 2016 cars are running.

Needless to say, the Mercedes is pounding round looking reliable and quick, Nico Rosberg in the car this morning, and has just gone fastest on his first soft tyre run, beating Sebastian Vettel's best time of last week by 0.7 of a second. Business as usual, it would appear.

 

Did I just notice Alonso third fastest .... too soon to get optimistic?

To answer my own questions, yes and probably!

Day one testing results

Posted at 17:05

1. Nico Rosberg 1:23.022 82 laps

2. Valtteri Bottas 1:23.229 123 laps

3. Fernando Alonso 1:24.735 93 laps

4. Kimi Raikkonen 1:24.836 72 laps

5. Daniil Kvyat 1:25.049 69 laps

6. Lewis Hamilton 1:25.051 89 laps

7. Max Verstappen 1:25.176 144 laps

8. Nico Hulkenberg 1:25.336 121 laps

9. Felipe Nasr 1:25.493 103 laps

10. Kevin Magnussen 1:25.760 119 laps

11. Esteban Gutierrez 1:26.661 23 laps

12. Rio Haryanto 1:27.625 45 laps

 

Like Catchphrase - say what you see, the Merc looks better ignoring all BS regarding times.

Definitely too early for McLaren. I think they'll be battling for the last of the points on a regular basis

 

Ferrari with the Halo, looking... well it's pretty damn ugly, isn't it.

 

Looks like a thong lol

 

I've no doubt that's what Kimi will call it ...

 

Wow that looks really really bad.

I thought the point of the halo bar was to protect the drivers head from a loose wheel. If that is the case, I'm sure it would need to be closer to the drivers head to provide any meaningful protection. If you look at Ferrari's design from the side, I'm sure there is enough room for a wheel to bounce down and hit the driver.

Why not extended is further back and attach is to the sides of the upper body work either side of the air in-take. The opening for the driver would still be oval shaped, but going further back.

 

Driver's eye view. Doesn't interfere as much as you would think, but then I'm not the one sitting two feet off the ground doing 190 mph ...