WILLIAMS admit the second and final Formula 1 test proved to be a real fact-finding mission as the new season edges ever closer.

Warmer conditions in Barcelona provided the teams with an opportunity to increase their track time after snow and rain hampered progress last week.

While reliability has not been a problem for the Grove-based Williams, there are still issues to be ironed out ahead of the first race in Melbourne on March 25.

“We really don’t know where we stand right now and will have to see in Melbourne,” said Lance Stroll.

“This week we did more running and it was better weather, so we had much better conditions.

“The car still needs some work on it to understand the balance, tyres and all that, but we shall see.”

Development driver Robert Kubica took to the track on Thursday morning and was pleased with the amount of data he obtained in the dry conditions.

He added: “We tried a softer compound, going from the soft to supersoft, just to get the basic information that we have on the tyre.

“Now we have to go through the data and try to analyse everything.”

The Enstone-based Renault team also head to the first race unaware of how they match up with their rivals, but are feeling positive after an encouraging week.

Nico Hülkenberg said: “We’ve made progress, but we still can’t be sure where we stand relative to the opposition – that’s something we’ll only know for sure in Australia.”

Carlos Sainz added: “We’ve been focusing on performance a bit more and we are learning all the time.”

The Haas team, from Banbury, are encouraged by their progress and Kevin Magnussen left Barcelona in a buoyant mood.

He said: “I’m pleased with what we’ve done this winter test.

“My time in the car has been valuable and I think we’ve learned a lot.

“I think we’ll be in decent shape to start the season.

“Now I’m ready to go racing.”