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[ivey]

I think it's sensible to say that Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull are the fastest and pretty equal, maybe Mercedes in that pack or a little behind.

[Gilles 27]

i think Mercedes are slightly behind, they are yet to post any startlingly fast lap times and come the end of the session they are normally midway down the table or in the top 4 or so but never it seems, at the top. This could be due to any number of things but it would strike me as odd if they were yet to have done a low fuel, soft tire run. If they had done this, and they had front running pace, you would expect them to have topped at least one session.
I read early on that Mercedes have got their weight distribution a bit off and as a result the car is on the pace wen it has a decent amount of fuel on board but not great when its really light...

[7UpJordan]

Hulkenberg set his fastest time about halfway through something like a 40 lap stint. Good job by him again today!

[Gilles 27]

If Hulkenberg is as good in an F1 car as he was in GP2 or particularly A1GP, he will be brilliant for Williams. I'm hoping he does the business.

[cap-dude]

I heard Mercedes talking about a big update they having coming for the first race in Bahrain, and saying it should be what they need to be competitive. Schumacher has also said quite a few times that he doesn't expect to win straight away. Mercedes far from the voice of confidence at the moment. So yeah, they may be a little behind.

Button suggesting Ferrari are on-top, whilst Mercedes are struggling a tad.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81607

[vaptin]

James Allen has his blog up:

Felipe Massa confirmed the picture which is emerging from the engineers involved in the testing, “Last year at the Barcelona test we discovered that there was one car which was much stronger than the rest (the Brawn),” he said. “So far this year there isn’t one car faster than the rest, we’re looking at a very competitive championship. The Red Bull looks strong, as expected. They were the fastest at the end of last season. I hope to be fighting them for the win from the first race.”

Engineers who are analysing the data from the tests continue to stress how close it is between the established teams. The order isn’t definitive yet, as it will shift next week when many teams bring their definitive Bahrain aerodynamic kits to the final Barcelona test. But Ferrari seems to be at the front and Renault seem a little behind, but probably no more than 7/10ths off the Ferrari.

[Gilles 27]

Yup, I read that, the Mercedes seems to be tricky under braking (going on eye witness reports) which i guess would make sense if they have a weight distribution problem. Solving that with an update sounds like a bit of an ask though, it would surely require some substantial re-packaging.
Perhaps they have a center of pressure issue rather than a weight distribution issue. This would cause a similar handling problem but could be fixed with aero updates.
The fact that they are seemingly very fast on longer runs but not (relatively) on shorter ones would indicate to me that it is a weight problem rather than an aero one.

[Frosty]

I think I read that Mercedes got the balance of the car wrong this year in terms of weight distribution and that they are working hard on fixing it. I think Ross Brawn commented about it to the BBC? Not heard anything about centre of pressure problems never thought about that before interesting theory!

[Jensonb]

Better a fast car with weight distribution problems (Ferrari's F2003-GA, still one of the prettiest cars ever made, was such a contender I think) than a slow car with pitch-sensitivity problems (As Brackley themselves produced in 2007) or a mediocre car with fundamental aerodynamic flaws (As Brackley also produced, this time in 2008).

If there's one thing those guys at Mercedes GP know how to do though, it's solve issues on an okay car and make it go quick. 2005 and 2006 are examples.

[ivey]

James Allen has his blog up:

Felipe Massa confirmed the picture which is emerging from the engineers involved in the testing, “Last year at the Barcelona test we discovered that there was one car which was much stronger than the rest (the Brawn),” he said. “So far this year there isn’t one car faster than the rest, we’re looking at a very competitive championship. The Red Bull looks strong, as expected. They were the fastest at the end of last season. I hope to be fighting them for the win from the first race.”

Engineers who are analysing the data from the tests continue to stress how close it is between the established teams. The order isn’t definitive yet, as it will shift next week when many teams bring their definitive Bahrain aerodynamic kits to the final Barcelona test. But Ferrari seems to be at the front and Renault seem a little behind, but probably no more than 7/10ths off the Ferrari.

Wow I've never considered Renault as one of the fastest :O

[cap-dude]

James Allen has his blog up:

Felipe Massa confirmed the picture which is emerging from the engineers involved in the testing, “Last year at the Barcelona test we discovered that there was one car which was much stronger than the rest (the Brawn),” he said. “So far this year there isn’t one car faster than the rest, we’re looking at a very competitive championship. The Red Bull looks strong, as expected. They were the fastest at the end of last season. I hope to be fighting them for the win from the first race.”

Engineers who are analysing the data from the tests continue to stress how close it is between the established teams. The order isn’t definitive yet, as it will shift next week when many teams bring their definitive Bahrain aerodynamic kits to the final Barcelona test. But Ferrari seems to be at the front and Renault seem a little behind, but probably no more than 7/10ths off the Ferrari.

Wow I've never considered Renault as one of the fastest :O

JA isn't implying they're fast. He's saying Renault are a bit behind everyone. 7 or 10 tenths may not sound like much, but last it was the difference between 1st and 10th. So really, Renault are in the same position as last year.

[Cubejam]

I dont think they're 7 tenths off the pace.. they have different agendas in testing...

[manmonkee]

Anybody noticed a little Air intake has apeared on top of the Mclaren, hovering over were the drivers knees would be??, I wonder if over heated knees is slowing the Mclaren down???

[Cubejam]

I have... I think it's just a sensor of some kind.. measuring airflow over the top of the car.... I think...

[7UpJordan]

Hulkenberg did a very good long run earlier, was consistant and his pace picked up too towards the end.

The page this came from has some laps missing.

86 Out lap
87 1:23.138 -0.994
88 1:22.616 -0.522
89 1:24.089 +1.473
90 1:23.446 -0.643
91 1:23.461 +0.015
92 1:23.316 -0.145
93 1:23.222 -0.094
94 1:23.131 -0.091
95 1:23.139 +0.008
96 1:23.309 +0.17
97 1:23.229 -0.08
98 1:23.241 +0.012
99 1:23.228 -0.013
100 1:23.834 +0.606
101 1:23.971 +0.137
102 1:23.840 -0.131
103 1:23.769 -0.071
104 1:23.493 -0.276
105 1:23.728 +0.235
106 1:23.818 +0.09
111 1:23.333 -0.485