Some of the sport's big stars may have been absent, but the first test of the winter at Barcelona last week provided no end of interesting developments and talking points as a new-look Formula 1 got underway.

James Allen casts his expert eye over the goings on at the Circuit de Catalunya and analyses the likely reasons for Pedro de la Rosa's Force India test, assesses the Senna/di Grassi shootout over at Honda and explains how teams were treating cars equipped with KERS.


Life moves on. The story changes. The UK papers pulled out of their tailspin over the recession and banking crisis once Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, Barack Obama and, latterly, John Sergeant gave them something else to write about.

Last week’s test at Barcelona has moved the F1 agenda on from the dramatic finale in Sao Paulo. F1 is reinventing itself again and focused on 2009.

Revolution is in the air, with radically different looking cars and technologies and some amazing ideas for spicing up the show, which would take F1 away from much that it has held dear for some time.


Force India's McLaren factor

There have been a lot of talking points from the Barcelona test: Honda evaluating Senna and di Grassi; the ugliness of the 2009 cars with their mismatched wings; and the safety of KERS, with mechanics all wearing heavy duty Marigolds to handle the cars.

Sebastian Vettel managed only a few metres on his first run at his new team Red Bull Racing before a brake problem caused a fire, while Pedro de la Rosa got tongues wagging by driving the Force India car. Twitchy-bum time for Giancarlo Fisichella…

Let’s start with that. Why did Pedro drive the car? Is he going to race for the team in 2009?

Quite possibly. If you recall he was slated to drive for Prodrive if that McLaren B-team project had come together and I know that he feels his has unfinished business as a racer.

But I think there were two other reasons he drove the Force India car now. Firstly, it still has a Ferrari engine in it, so it was a rare chance for a McLaren man to assess the Ferrari powerplant.

And secondly, this is a technical collaboration and the two sides need to understand each other well, so it’s vital for McLaren to assess where the Force India package is at the outset.

Of course the 2009 car will be totally different, but de la Rosa has given McLaren’s engineers an understanding of the baseline.

Fisi admitted to some Italian colleagues that his key relationship there was with the now departed Colin Kolles.

He has a contract for 2009 and was announced by Vijay Mallya in Shanghai as one of his ’09 drivers, but the feeling from the test is that McLaren wants de la Rosa in the car to push the programme on.

Adrian Sutil seemed calm, pointing out that he was over a second faster than de la Rosa.

Honda's driver dilemma

Over at Honda, Senna and di Grassi took part in a shootout for the second seat alongside Jenson Button, who has publicly stated that he would prefer Rubens Barrichello as his team-mate.

Of the two di Grassi has a lot more F1 experience, having been a tester for Renault this year. The engineers there rated him highly for his technical ability, but they went a little quiet if you asked them whether he’s fast enough for F1.

Honda are assessing that now, likewise with Senna. It’s always dangerous to read too much into headline lap times from tests – you need to look at long runs and directly compare new tyre runs on similar fuel loads in similar conditions to see who’s faster.


KERS and F1's new look

There has been a lot of chat behind the scenes as the year went on about the safety of KERS, especially after the BMW mechanic was knocked off his feet at the first test by an electric shock.

Last week the mechanics handling KERS cars are using thick rubber gloves, to prevent a repeat. They have to wait three seconds once the engine is switched off before touching the car.

It is clear that there is a long way to go before the teams are up to speed on this new technology.

As I’ve mentioned before, it will be at the race starts that the KERS system is most apparent early in 2009, with the power boost likely to give a couple or three car lengths advantage over a non-KERS car, once the car reaches 100km/h.

As for the new-look cars, they will certainly take some getting used to; as the saying goes, ‘that’s a face only a mother could love’.

The generation of cars which culminated in the 2008 models were beautiful and their ugly sisters are just that.

If they produce brilliant racing, will they become beautiful?


James Allen,F1 | ITV Sport