F1 Testing: Winners and losers in Barcelona

With the pre-season bluster now put aside, we can get our teeth into the landscape of Formula 1 heading into the 2018 campaign. There aren't any prizes for testing, but we think there should be, so we picked out winners, and losers, at the Circuit de Catalunya.

WINNERS

The fans (hopefully)

All the signs point to this season being a tighter affair.

Red Bull won't be starting the season from as far behind, if at all, with Max Verstappen's confidence following ominous warnings from Mercedes.

The Silver Arrows are yet to show us their true pace, and it looks as though they have made several steps forward from last season, but they look like being kept on their toes.

Toro Rosso (and Honda)

Maybe it wasn't Honda's fault after all, eh McLaren?

While their old partners have suffered (more on that later), Honda have finally delivered a reliable engine, it would seem. Toro Rosso were the mileage leaders for the first test, while Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly have also mixed it with their midfield rivals in terms of time.

Interesting glances may well be coming over from the sister team's garage this season...

LOSERS

McLaren, McLaren... so much McLaren

The positive for McLaren? It's not quite been as bad as recent years, but they still delivered fewer laps than any other squad, 611. By comparison, Mercedes clocked 1040!

Their Renault engine is at least up to speed with their rivals, but implementing it appears to have been much more tricky, with fixes needed right up to the final day, which is not a good sign.

However minor the issues may have been, they've also been varied and McLaren have suffered more breakdowns and failures than any other team on the grid, often eating up crucial time that they now don't have to get to grips with their new power units.

All the more galling for everyone invovled at McLaren is seeing Toro Rosso enjoy exceptional reliability, and putting in lap times that suggest they're not quite as underpowered as McLaren have been in recent years.

Force India

It was expected, but pre-season seems to have confirmed that Force India's years of solid progression look to be over.

Mercedes grunt will help them, and they have two fine drivers in Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, but it does look like Renault and McLaren (ability to remain on the track long enough permitting) will be well ahead of them this season.

Not only were the pink cars shunted down the timesheets, but they were also towards the bottom of the mileage chart.