After the shakedown in Barcelona, the first question to ask is whether it really had to be so secretive. Of course, it matters that ‘official’ winter testing is organised in Bahrain and that, for commercial reasons, only that event is allowed to carry that name, but fears of a repeat of 2014 have proven unfounded.
Williams was absent, Audi ran into some teething troubles as a newcomer, and yes, there were red flags, but that’s entirely normal at the start of a new era. It has certainly not been a catastrophe. In fact, the opposite can be argued: it is praiseworthy that most teams have come out of the blocks so productively after a very short winter break and the biggest technical overhaul in decades.
