Commenting on the site in reference to the times posted by drivers on Friday, a reader questioned why the media bothers; claiming that "going on about fastest times is meaningless ".

In many ways the reader is correct, for there are many unknowns that have to be taken into consideration, not least fuel loads.

Furthermore, there are other aspects of the car that are not scrutinised like they are at Grands Prix, meaning that the times can give a false impression. This is particularly important, for example, if a team is looking to impress a potential sponsor, and has led to what Maurizio Arrivabene referred to on Friday as the "winter championship".

As he quite rightly said, there are no points, no real glory, for topping the timesheets at Barcelona on a bright and crisp day in February, when the same car can barely make it into Q2 come Melbourne.

That said, a team would rather be one second off the pace heading to the season opener than four seconds. Furthermore, where lap times in testing really do come in handy is when we look at the tyres being used. For example, Lotus drivers Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado posted the first and third quickest times over the four days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. The Frenchman's best time was 1.165s quicker than Lewis Hamilton's pole time for last year's Spanish Grand Prix, when conditions were even better.

Therefore, as anticipated, we can expect faster laps times this year.

But note also that splitting the two Lotus drivers on the timesheets is Nico Rosberg. However, where their times were set on the new super-soft rubber, his best was run on the medium rubber, in the same conditions as Grosjean’s, and he was only 0.254s off the Frenchman's best.

Then there is the whole issue of reliability, where once again Mercedes, both as a team and engine manufacturer, comes out on top.

Indeed, the lap times do not tell the whole story, far from it. However, taken in context along with the number of laps completed and the tyre compounds used, a picture does begin to emerge.

Engine Manufacturer Test Mileage - Barcelona

Engine Manufacturer	Miles	Kms
Mercedes	4390.9	7066.29
Renault	2397.9	3858.99
Ferrari	1917.8	3086.26
Honda	358.7	577.22

Team Test Mileage - Barcelona

Team	Miles	Kms
Mercedes	1290.1	2076.13
Red Bull	1209.1	1945.79
Toro Rosso	1188.8	1913.20
Williams	1177.3	1894.58
Lotus	1044.2	1680.45
Ferrari	997.9	1605.97
Sauber	919.8	1480.29
Force India	879.3	1415.12
McLaren	358.7	577.22

Driver Test Mileage - Barcelona

Driver	Team	Miles	Kms
Verstappen	Toro Rosso	645.0	1038.06
Kvyat	Red Bull	624.8	1005.48
Ricciardo	Red Bull	584.3	940.31
Hamilton	Mercedes	581.4	935.65
Rosberg	Mercedes	569.8	917.03
Sainz	Toro Rosso	543.8	875.14
Vettel	Ferrari	523.6	842.55
Bottas	Williams	514.9	828.59
Maldonado	Lotus	500.4	805.31
Ericsson	Sauber	480.2	772.73
Raikkonen	Ferrari	474.4	763.42
Wehrlein	Mercedes/Force India	465.7	749.45
Perez	Force India	448.3	721.52
Nasr	Sauber	439.7	707.56
Massa	Williams	413.6	665.66
Grosjean	Lotus	321.1	516.70
Wolff	Williams	248.8	400.33
Alonso	McLaren	228.5	367.74
Palmer	Lotus	222.7	358.43
Button	McLaren	130.2	209.47
Hulkenberg	Force India	104.1	167.58