Formula 1 pre-season testing: Why are the cars bouncing, and will racing be closer in 2022?

The first pre-season test of a new era of Formula 1 ended on Friday, and a glance at the timesheets might suggest very little has changed.

Lewis Hamilton led new team-mate George Russell in a Mercedes one-two, the two Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and new world champion Max Verstappen were third and fourth fastest, and the Ferrari drivers fifth and sixth.

So much for F1's much-vaunted rules revolution, introduced this season with the intention of creating closer, more competitive racing, you might think.

Well, perhaps.

The truth is that, yes, very few within F1 would be surprised if Mercedes and Red Bull were indeed the two fastest teams when the season starts in Bahrain next month.

But at the same time it would be unwise in the extreme to draw too many conclusions from three days of running in Barcelona this week.

For one thing, headline lap times in pre-season testing have always been notoriously unreliable as indicators of true competitiveness — there are too many variables any year, and that applies even more so now, after the biggest rule change for 40 years.

Russell said he believed the times were «absolutely unrepresentative» of the true competitive picture, and that Ferrari and McLaren were in the best shape.

McLaren driver Lando Norris, fastest on the first day, disagreed.

«Mercedes never look that good in testing,» he said. «If they are good in testing, it probably means they are going to be incredible by the first race.

»We can see a picture. I think we are in a decent position. But Mercedes and Ferrari have looked very good since day one. They have been at the top of the timesheets and their long-run pace looks good.

«Ferrari look very, very strong, but Mercedes and Red Bull are right there with us, and personally I'd