While we will have to wait another couple of weeks, until qualifying in Melbourne, to see who's truly hot and who's not - though we might have a good idea about the latter - the games of 'they're favourites', 'no, they're favourites', continue.

Despite the W08 hardly missing a beat in 989 laps of running and drivers Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton second and third on the timesheets, the mind games continue.

Latest to weigh-in, is Niki Lauda who claims that updates the German team brought to Barcelona this week are not working.

"Personally, I'm not entirely happy," he told RTL, "we tested a few updates which haven't worked out as we had expected them to.

"This is why we need to test them again, tomorrow," he continued. "We have to make further changes in order to understand how the car moves around the circuit in the fastest way possible. I'm sure we can solve these problems by Melbourne."

Asked who he believes will be heading to Melbourne as favourite he said: "I don't think anybody can say, I think Mercedes is facing a tough year.

"The first three races will give us an idea," he continued. "After that we'll have an understanding of how the competitive order looks.

"I think Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull are close together," he added, "within maybe two or three tenths. So the field has got closer, which is great news for the season opener."

Check out our Friday gallery from Barcelona, here.