Redbull lead the way?

If the Bahrain Grand Prix had gone ahead in a little over two week’s time, the Red Bull team would have looked like the heavy favourites going into the race.

Ferrari look to be the closest team to challenge them, but with an almost faultless winter testing schedule and a spotless final test in Barcelona, you simply couldn’t look past 2010 F1 World champion Sebastian Vettel or team mate Mark Webber to challenge for the race win in Bahrain.

After Monday’s test session ended in Barcelona Red Bull’s head of race engineering Ian Morgan told formula1.com: “Today we got through quite a lot of work in evaluating some development components on the suspension, brakes and aero package, we got through the whole programme without any difficulties so, all in all, a useful day’s work.

Australian Mark Webber completed 69 laps on the day and finished second on the timing sheets behind Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Massa’s time of 1minute 22.625 seconds was the fastest time recorded over the four day test session and Webber was just 0.817 seconds behind.

“We set out a pretty ambitious schedule for this test and I’m pleased to say that we managed to get through almost all of it. Obviously, the weather yesterday hampered us a little but even then we got some wet weather running in, which helps us understand the tyres a bit better. Overall, I think we are quite pleased with the progress we’ve made here.” Morgan concluded.

However with the Bahrain testing session scheduled for next week and the race called off, other teams will have some bonus extra time to complete simulator work and perhaps develop their car to close the gap to Red Bull and Ferrari.

The Bahrain test will be replaced and teams will return to Barcelona for the final testing session ahead of the 2011 season, will Red Bull and Ferrari continue to look the class of the field or will other teams like McLaren, Renault, Mercedes and believe it or not Toro Rosso (who have looked solid in testing so far) close the gap with the unexpected extra time?

McLaren have been playing catch up throughout winter testing following the late development of their 2011 car, they perhaps will be the team most pleased about the delay to the season, but will the extra time be enough for them to turn what looks a struggling machine into a race winner in time for the Australian Grand Prix?

We won’t know until the first practice session in Melbourne.