On the penultimate day of the Barcelona test, Nico Rosberg notched up the fastest time at the Circuit de Catalunya with 1:20.686. Now that maybe just 0.072 seconds off the pace set by Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams on day two but nothing can be read out of it just as yet, except of course that Nico – the Mercedes one – was on a qualifying simulation.

The part that is open to interpretation though is in regards to the statements that the two Mercedes drivers have been making. Before the final test session began, Rosberg admitted that ‘Mercedes will not be revealing their final hand just yet’. From what one has been able to gather from reading testing reports is that Ross Brawn and team will reveal their 2010 diffuser (along with an upgraded aero package) only at Bahrain. Probably it has something to do with an earlier statement from Ferrari that said another row over the double-diffusers could ensue.

In that sense, it is quite clever to make first use of such a device only at the first race. That will not give any time to your competitors to realize you have tripped them over once again so they can lodge a protest and get a verdict. And by the time they do that, a couple of races might already be won and then the FIA can be made to look stupid. Why, isn’t that what exactly happened last year, when Brawn GP ran away with the first few races while the rest were arguing with the authorities over the legality of the diffusers and ultimately the FIA had to accept them, given the loopholes in the rules?

It doesn’t mean however that this year too Ross Brawn will unleash magic at the first race. But if you need indicators, then what better than the words of a seven-time world champion? Michael Schumacher, after his first day of testing at Barcelona, said that ‘he didn’t expect the car to be fighting for wins in the initial few races’. Twenty four hours later, he retracted his statements and said that Mercedes are very much in the fight.

Now one can only assume that Brawn probably went up to a worried Schumacher and told him not to stress himself out for the solution to ‘diffuse’ all their problems was coming soon. And if that is the case then the general feeling that the German marquee just a wee bit is utter trash!

For they have sandbagged like crazy over the testing season.