As readers wonder whether our story about a Hollywood composer being commissioned to write a new theme tune for F1 is an early April Fool, one might be tempted to think that it is the stats following the opening test are the big tease.

The team with the most miles under its belt is Toro Rosso, while between them McLaren duo Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne have completed more laps than their colleagues at both Red Bull and Force India.

In 2017, Toro Rosso, then powered by Renault, came away from the opening test with just 183 laps completed, while Honda powered McLaren had completed 208 - this at a time the likes of Mercedes were completing 558.

A year later, and having switched engine suppliers, Toro Rosso tops the mileage chart with 324 laps, while McLaren has 260 under its belt.

Pierre Gasly is the driver with the most laps (229), while on 147, McLaren's Vandoorne has the fifth highest number.

In terms of pace, Fernando Alonso is the quickest of the four drivers, and while 1.596s off Lewis Hamilton's best, and on the supersofts, the Spaniard must be feeling a lot more confident than twelve months ago.

In addition to being the pace-setter, Mercedes is second in terms of mileage, the German outfit having completed 306. However, on 298 and 283 are Ferrari and Sauber, the Swiss team clearly benefitting from having the current power unit from Maranello.

It's early days, and what with the weather effectively costing two whole days of running, it's wrong to start making assumptions.

That said, there is no arguing with the fact that Honda has taken a massive step forward in terms of reliability, while McLaren is also benefitting from the switch to Renault.

On the other hand, should the trends continue, will the Woking outfit rue its divorce from the Japanese manufacturer, feeling it should have given the marriage a little more time.

Looking ahead to the second week, assuming the weather gods behave themselves, Red Bull, Force India and Haas appear to be the teams with most work to do.

Team Test Mileage

Team	Laps	Miles	Kms
Toro Rosso	324	937.2	1508.2
Mercedes	306	885.1	1424.4
Ferrari	298	862.0	1387.2
Sauber	283	818.6	1317.3
Williams	276	798.3	1284.8
Renault	273	789.7	1270.8
McLaren	260	752.1	1210.3
Red Bull	209	604.5	972.9
Haas	187	540.9	870.5
Force India	166	480.2	772.7

Engine Manufacturer Test Mileage

Engine Manufacturer	Laps	Miles	Kms
Ferrari	768	2221.4	3575.0
Mercedes	748	2163.6	3481.9
Renault	742	2146.2	3453.9
Honda	324	937.2	1508.2

Driver Test Mileage

Driver	Team	Laps	Miles	Kms
Gasly	Toro Rosso	229	662.4	1066.0
Vettel	Ferrari	218	630.6	1014.8
Bottas	Mercedes	212	613.2	986.8
Sainz	Renault	151	436.8	702.9
Vandoorne	McLaren	147	425.2	684.3
Ericsson	Sauber	143	413.6	665.7
Leclerc	Sauber	140	405.0	651.7
Magnussen	Haas	132	381.8	614.4
Sirotkin	Williams	127	367.3	591.2
Hulkenberg	Renault	122	352.9	567.9
Alonso	McLaren	113	326.9	526.0
Ricciardo	Red Bull	107	309.5	498.1
Verstappen	Red Bull	102	295.0	474.8
Stroll	Williams	100	289.3	465.5
Hartley	Toro Rosso	95	274.8	442.2
Hamilton	Mercedes	94	271.9	437.6
Raikkonen	Ferrari	80	231.4	372.4
Ocon	Force India	79	228.5	367.7
Perez	Force India	65	188.0	302.6
Grosjean	Haas	55	159.1	256.0
Kubica	Williams	49	141.7	228.1
Mazepin	Force India	22	63.6	102.4

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by BillH, 05/03/2018 18:29

"As a McLaren and Hartley fan as things stand today I'm mixed on their prospects based on the limited running so far.
The McLaren part of me says that, they should have given Honda "one more year" though I completely understand why they split.
The Hartley / Toro Rosso side of things is one of cautious optimism tempered with waiting to see what happens when Honda turn up the wick so to speak.
Basically, it is too soon to say how things go. This week should give us a better perspective as the teams crank things up and go for race distance running.
For both outfits things are better than last year which is positive. "

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