Red Bull still in front but by how much? F1 2024 teams ranked after testing

10) Haas

“For their quickest times, Hulkenberg and Magnussen stayed on the C3 [tyre], so they weren’t tempted to do some softer tyre runs. Their priorities are actually sorting out their tyre degradation in other areas. But they remain slowest. The good news is that they have sorted out their tyre degradation, but there isn’t enough pace in that car inherently.”

9) Sauber

“At the moment its Sauber for me in ninth, even though Zhou Guanyu was third-quickest on the C4 tyre. I don’t know, Sauber from the state of that, you would actually say that they are ahead of Williams because Alex Albon was also on the C4 tyre, but three tenths behind the Sauber. But Sauber like to do a low-fuel run, whereas Williams tend not to at the end. In previous years at the end of testing, Sauber have loved to take the fuel out.”

8) Alpine

“It’s an interesting question as to whether Sauber is going to be quite close to Alpine at the moment and whether Williams might have jumped them both. I don’t really want to say this because Alpine have improved the car, but it’s Alpine in eighth with Williams ahead of them.”

7) Williams

6) RB

“Yuki Tsunoda, on the same C4 tyre as Alex Albon in the Williams, but Yuki was more or less two tenths ahead and they were clean laps. If we think that Alex maybe had a bit more fuel in then maybe that explains that. But the way RB are run now, I don’t think they were on no fuel either. So I’m willing to give RB the benefit of the doubt and say that they are ahead of Williams at the moment.”

5) Aston Martin

“It seems that Aston are ahead of RB but very firmly behind McLaren."

4) McLaren

“Slightly quicker than them by a few tenths is McLaren but with plenty of potential, because they’ve had a troubled test but they still feel they are in the game.”

3) Mercedes

“Mercedes showed they do have some speed but much more to learn from a transition into a car that they don’t know, but there’s lots to learn on that. I think Mercedes think they are behind Ferrari but not too far.”

2) Ferrari

“Then Ferrari clearly ahead of that pack. Given that Leclerc was on the C5, the softest of all them, but Sainz with the fastest lap of the test, in the 29s, that was only the C4. So clearly I think Ferrari are second.”

1) Red Bull

“Which leaves in front, Red Bull - but by how much? Between eight tenths and three tenths to Ferrari, that’s what I think.

“Tyre corrected, Max Verstappen would have been quickest because he set his time on the C3 tyre. And if there’s seven tenths to the C5 which Leclerc was on, then that makes Max faster today by three or four tenths of a second. 

"So I think it’s anything from a conservative three tenths to an absolutely whacking optimistic eight tenths, or even maybe more.”