So finally, I am writing my report from the Barcelona F1 test session, February 19th and 20th, I have been delayed by the efforts to rally fans to the aid of Super Aguri but all is quiet now …

I had planned my trip back in December, and now it was Monday 18th February. Later I would travel to Stanstead to fly into Barcelona the night before the tests begin. I had already learned in the press that the new car would not be available for the proposed launch, so I knew I would miss it.

However … Less than an hour to go and some terrible news breaks, SAF1 were unable to travel to Barcelona due to circumstances beyond their control.

So on to the plane, then the free train from BCN to the hotel, and into a nearby Japanese restaurant.

On Tuesday morning, I travelled to the track with Yukiko-san. She had come from The Nederland.  Our taxi from the nearby train station dropped us at Gate Three. Sadly for me, that was diagonally opposite where I needed to be. D’oh!  So I started walking. An hour later I was in to the paddock. Not much going on and mostly the photographers stayed in the media centre writing rather than snapping.

Trulli, Webber, Coulthard, Rossberg and Nakajima were running. When I say running, I mean they were in and out. The weather was stopping them from having a decent long run.

The day was chilly but exciting, finally having my own pass to use all day. It felt good to be free to wander legitimately.

I had a chat with Nico Rossberg, and he said that he thought podiums were not going to be a part of William’s year. I said that I thought they were on their way to be up front – but he answered:  with those four cars (Ferrari x 2 + McLaren x 2) a second a lap faster, it would only be podiums if others had really bad luck. This year is special for Williams with a couple of anniversaries – their car had a number famous signatures, and the nose cone carried the names of all the previous divers.

The long day was finished off with a lovely paella in a Barcelona bar, a trip to the excellent market and then an early night.

Wednesday was slightly wetter than Tuesday, so again the team were doing short spurts of laps followed by long periods of engine stripping. Ferrari had joined those running though, and so had Alonso. Security for Alonso included barriers from his hospitality area across to the back of the garage. Quite strange and quite inconvenient.

The cars look quite similar apart from a few aerodynamic absurdities.

I couldn’t see any major developments, no big changes to car or aerodynamics. So I started to look for things elsewhere, and I found a couple.

Firstly was Ferrari’s pitlane. Just in front of where the driver will sit, there is a small sleek box with three lamps in it. Red, amber  and green. No lollipop, but traffic lights to control the driver’s release. Is this another case of Ferrari showing the future, or just a waste of time and money?    Sadly I couldn’t tell you, because there was no urgency or competition going on with their stops – so it wasn’t used ‘in anger’. But it looked very good. You can see it in the gallery here: www.saf1.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=7838 (on page 6).

You might notice the cable on the top – this appears to be how they change the lights, by  pressing the switch on this string, Is this going to give them any advantage?  Let’s wait and see, eh?

The second thing I saw was not equipment but teamwork…

Williams were practising – no doubt the pit crew were trying to get Nakajima-san to park up without hitting them. I watched in awe, this is always the most fascinating part of the race for me. They were having trouble with the refuelling rig. Second stop and the same man and the same rig produced another problem.

When for the third time they swapped rigs, I watched a little closer – the fuelling  man didn’t even look at the rig, he simply replaced it and walked into the garage. That’s when it dawned on me – there was no problem. The Williams team were simply practising for when there was a problem. I didn’t see anyone else doing this.

We have all seen problems like this during a race and how long it can take to correct it. This year, Williams will probably be a little quicker than the others – if it happens to them.

Nakajima-san didn’t hit anyone, though he was better at the end of the day than at the beginning, so practice was paying-off.

All of the teams seemed to be taking things carefully and not pushing themselves or the drivers. There were a couple of small 'offs' nothing too bad though - a sign things were calm.

I was only there for two days, and to be honest I didn't learn a lot about the coming season other than McLaren and Ferrari are still out front, with a second per lap advantage if Rossberg is to be believed.

Let's see...