As the final day of 2014 testing came to a close, Pascal Wehrlein will have made his Mercedes colleagues Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg take notice as he takes advantage of opportunity to shine.

Meanwhile, no matter how much spin the McLaren and Honda PR machines might put on it, completing just five laps in two days of testing is not a solid foundation on which to rebuild a marriage.

The world champions programme focussed on aero testing, the 2015 Pirelli tyres, system checks and set-up work as well as testing new parts for the 2015 regulations. During the day's running the new supersoft, soft and medium tyres were all tested, with Wehrlein completing 96 laps over the course of a problem free all day.

"I really enjoyed today; it was a great day," beamed the German. "The first time in this car and the second time in a Formula One car; I had a lot of fun. We completed our planned test programme and there were no problems.

"The change between a DTM car and a Formula One car is a big difference," he admitted, in a masterpiece of understatement, "so this was the biggest challenge today, particularly with the brakes.

"It's a fantastic racing car; it's good to see myself quickest but at the end of the day it doesn't matter as everyone has a different test programme. The important thing was that I was able to improve a lot during the day and complete the full test programme. I've been in the simulator since the beginning of the year and I enjoy the work there, so I hope to continue that in 2015 to be able to learn even more. This test will certainly help with the feedback there too."

At Ferrari, Raffaele Marciello, a product of the Maranello outfit's Driver Academy was on duty, the youngster settling in quickly and working with the team providing precise feedback.

Today's programme included aerodynamic measurement work as well as set-up tests, based on the data acquired yesterday when Kimi Raikkonen was in action. In the afternoon, the team continued with a comparison of the 2015 tyre compounds and those used in the season just ended.

"Today was a dream come true" said Marciello. "For an Italian, to jump into a Ferrari, at an official test no less, is a really strong emotion and I am grateful to the team for giving me this opportunity. You can really feel the difference, compared to a GP2 car, especially in terms of engine power and the braking force. This being my first time at the wheel of an F14 T, I had to gradually adapt my driving style, but in general, I felt comfortable and I hope I helped the team gather useful data.

"It was impossible not to think about Jules," he added, referring to Jules Bianchi a fellow member of the FDA, "he and I joined the Ferrari Driver Academy at the same time and if I am here today, it's in part because he is not. Jules taught me to always push myself to the limit and here today, I tried to do that for him."

The next time the team takes to the track will be at the first of the winter tests, at Jerez de la Frontera in early February, when the new car will make its debut.

Max Verstappen's apprenticeship kicked up another gear with a major engine failure the cost valuable track time and brought about one of the numerous red flags today.

"We had a very good morning with a lot of running, which allowed us to test quite a few new things on the car in preparation for next year," said the teenager. "We had the possibility to go through the intense programme that we had planned, to catch up from yesterday without delays or hitches. I really enjoyed spending four hours without getting out of the car; it was a great feeling.

"Unfortunately in the afternoon we had a Power Unit issue which stopped us for quite a while, but we managed to fix the problem in time to go out again before the end of the session, getting some more useful driving time. I want to thank the team for everything they have done to make these two days a great start to the new season together."

"We had a very productive day, especially in the morning, when we ran continuously, even squeezing in an extra run before lunch," said Chief Race Engineer, Phil Charles. "However, at the start of the afternoon, a technical problem kept the car in the garage for around three hours.

"The mechanics worked really well to get the car back out on track and we even woke up some of our nightshift guys to come and help! Thanks to their efforts we managed to give Max a further three runs. He has really got stuck into his learning programme over these past two days, doing long and short runs and finding out a lot about tyre management. Overall, this has been a good end to our time on track in 2014."

Marcus Ericsson continued with the C33 as Sauber continued to focus on aerodynamic testing, 2015 tyre comparisons and working on different set-up configurations on low and high fuel loads. Despite a number of technical issues, the team was mainly able to get through its planned programme and declared itself pleased with the outcome of the day.

"I have had two great testing days with just a few problems," said Ericsson. "We have completed a productive test programme over both days, and we have covered almost everything we had planned. I had a good time getting to know the people within the team, and starting to work with everyone. Starting to drive the C33, building my feeling for the car, and giving my input for next year's car was important.

"Overall, we had two constructive test days. Today we continued to work on different set-ups, aero measurements and tyre evolutions, which will be beneficial for next year. This was a good start. Now I am even more motivated to work extremely hard with the team over the winter to be prepared for the first test."

"Overall it was a good day," added Test Engineer, Paul Russell. "We carried on with the aero work from yesterday. Besides that, we continued to investigate what the tyres for next year were like, which was more detailed today. We had technical issues with the brakes. Therefore, we did some brake tests, which were interesting. Although we had a short delay because of this, we were able to get almost everything done. We continued working with Marcus, which was good. At the end of the day, he did short runs with qualifying settings."