05/02/2015
NEWS STORY
While it would be fashionable to ladle further doom and gloom on McLaren-Honda's opening test, let's not forget the lessons of 2014.
Kevin Magnussen came away from the opening test as pace-setter, ahead of Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton, with McLaren teammate Jenson Button fourth and the Ferrari duo fifth and seventh. Indeed, the opening day of testing, saw the Kimi Raikkonen and his Ferrari outpace the eventual world champion by 0.716s.
And while some will mock - including us on Twitter - it's what it's for - the 79 laps completed by the Woking team over the past four days, this compares favourably with the 21 completed by Red Bull last year, the 54 by Toro Rosso and 76 by Caterham. And let's not forget the fact that Lotus didn't even turn up.
Whilst we don't expect to see McLaren worrying Lewis and Nico too much in Melbourne, it would be foolish to write the Woking outfit off this season, not with the might (and pride) of Honda behind it.
The opening test was about reliability and consistency, not pace, so let's not get too carried away by the time difference between the Ferraris and Mercedes, instead look at the mileage the teams have completed... as the old saying goes, to finish first, first you have to finish.
Ferrari has clearly improved its power unit, but the Mercedes remains the class of the field.
For what it's worth, the other thing worth noting is that Raikkonen's fastest lap this week was 2.435s quicker than anything we saw at Jerez in 2014.
Engine Manufacturer Test Mileage - Jerez
| Engine Manufacturer | Miles | Kms |
| Mercedes | 2707.4 | 4356.98 |
| Ferrari | 2011.3 | 3236.74 |
| Renault | 1428.0 | 2298.04 |
| Honda | 217.4 | 349.80 |
Team Test Mileage - Jerez
| Team | Miles | Kms |
| Mercedes | 1419.7 | 2284.76 |
| Sauber | 1051.0 | 1691.43 |
| Toro Rosso | 971.2 | 1563.02 |
| Ferrari | 960.2 | 1545.31 |
| Williams | 764.9 | 1230.94 |
| Lotus | 522.8 | 841.29 |
| Red Bull | 456.7 | 735.02 |
| McLaren | 217.4 | 349.80 |
Driver Test Mileage - Jerezn
| Driver | Team | Miles | Kms |
| Rosberg | Mercedes | 847.4 | 1363.77 |
| Hamilton | Mercedes | 572.3 | 920.99 |
| Raikkonen | Ferrari | 550.3 | 885.57 |
| Nasr | Sauber | 542.0 | 872.28 |
| Ericsson | Sauber | 509.0 | 819.15 |
| Sainz | Toro Rosso | 503.5 | 810.29 |
| Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 467.7 | 752.73 |
| Vettel | Ferrari | 410.0 | 659.75 |
| Massa | Williams | 396.2 | 637.61 |
| Maldonado | Lotus | 376.9 | 606.61 |
| Bottas | Williams | 368.7 | 593.33 |
| Ricciardo | Red Bull | 231.1 | 371.94 |
| Kvyat | Red Bull | 225.6 | 363.08 |
| Grosjean | Lotus | 145.8 | 234.67 |
| Button | McLaren | 112.8 | 181.54 |
| Alonso | McLaren | 104.6 | 168.26 |
For daily times, reports and pictures from Jerez, visit our Test Index