New Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen topped the times in Jerez on the opening day of testing in 2012, and afterwards everyone grunted some platitudes at reporters. Patty summarises the post-test comments from up and down the grid.
After dominating the morning running with Kimi Raikkonen, Renault remained ahead to the end of the day, the Finn topping the times with a best time of 1:19.670.
And speaking to the Lotus website after the morning runs, the team's technical director James Allison said that the start the team had made had been a good one.
"Overall everything has been positive," he grinned, "To have no significant issues in terms of temperatures and main functions of the car allows us to get out there and start working on getting the maximum from it as quickly as possible."
But asked where he felt the team was compared to their rivals, he added: "It's impossible to say.
"The teams are doing a whole mixture of different programmes at the moment and we obviously don't have any clear idea of what the others might be working on currently.
"We will start to know where we stand as things unfold over the coming days and weeks, but it's still very early doors and the real picture will only come together when we get to Melbourne for the first race."
He was also full of praise for their famous new driver, saying: "You can tell Kimi is a class act. He gets in the car and is on the pace straight away; there's no building up to it.
"His commitment is instant and the lap times show that. His fitness level is also good which has allowed him to be consistent, and he hasn't had any major 'moments' out on track; he seems to have everything very much under control."
But Raikkonen himself played down his session-topping performance, saying that there was no point trying to read anything into early testing times.
"It's the first day, and it would make a difference if it were a race weekend, but here it means nothing," he shrugged at reporters.
But on a positive note, he added: "The feeling was pretty good with the car. The first feeling is handling quite nicely so... just going with that feeling I'm quite happy, but there are areas that we can improve and that we have to improve. I'm positive about it."
At McLaren, despite only mustering the 8th fastest time in the new MP4-27, Jenson Button said that he got a completely different initial reaction to this car than the troublesome 2011 model.
"It is quite different to last year. So, I am happy," he told reporters, "It is still a starting point and we didn't do any set-up work today to improve the balance, and you will never start off with a perfect car."
He went on: "It does feel very different to testing last year - which is a good thing really because it is not like we can just stick on an exhaust that gives us two seconds at the first race [again]."
And as far as the season ahead was concerned, he suggested that the initial times appeared to show it would be a close fight.
"I think you will see the cars a lot more bunched up this season, especially at the start of the year," he mused.
"It is great, great for the sport - it just makes it more complicated and difficult for us."
At Toro Rosso, it was a positive first day at the office for Daniel Ricciardo, who finished the day fifth in the times despite losing time late on with an oil pressure issue.
"It was really nice to be back in the cockpit and being the first person to drive the STR7 was a little bonus," the Australian was quoted as saying by gpupdate.net, "It was great to experience taking a completely new car out of the garage.
"We had a very productive morning, doing over 40 laps and we made good progress with our programme. In the afternoon we did a couple of longer runs but had to cut it short, although we only lost an hour."
He added: "Overall, a good start and I'm looking forward to another productive day tomorrow because this car is very enjoyable to drive. It was a good feeling going fast again.
"It's too early to give a true assessment of the car, but out of the box this morning it seemed balanced and quite stable. It gave me a good feeling when I put the power down.”
Meanwhile, Red Bull's work for the day was delayed when key parts for the RB8 being flown to the Jerez track were held up by heavy fog.
Nevertheless, Mark Webber finished fourth in the times, and afterwards he shrugged off the impact of the morning delays.
"Sometimes we can't control Mother Nature," he was quoted as saying by the Autosport website, "We risked a tight schedule and we paid the price - that can happen sometimes."
He added: "The recovery wasn't too bad, we got some decent running in. It's always exciting to understand the new concept of a car, and Adrian [Newey]'s already in there having a look around and seeing if he can make the car quicker.
"Beautiful conditions down here, we're very fortunate with that, and the rest of the week bodes well in terms of getting information."
The Sauber team finished the day in seventh, with Kamui Kobayashi the busiest driver of the day, completing 106 laps despite causing a brief session stoppage.
"I'm happy," the Japanese driver said after the session, "The new car feels fine. We managed good mileage today despite a small problem in the morning session."
He added: "Running today wasn't about performance but focused on checking systems and reliability. Nevertheless, I got the impression the new Pirelli tyres might be good for us.
"I am looking forward to the next tests and to further work on the car."
Sergio Perez will take over the C31 for Wednesday and Thursday, before Kobayashi returns on Friday.
It was a frustrating opening day for Williams, as Pastor Maldonado ended the day 11th having only completed 25 laps in the new Renault-powered FW34.
"Unfortunately testing was cut short with a couple of initial teething problems which we are currently investigating," the team's chief operations engineer Mark Gillan explained.
"We intend to get these fixed this evening in time for a full test programme with Pastor tomorrow."
Maldonado added: "The car felt good and the systems were all working well this morning. I like the feel of the new Renault engine as well.
"It’s still too early to make any predictions, but we are pushing hard and working to understand the car better."
At Caterham, Heikki Kovalainen showed some promise, ending the day 10th, but only managed 28 laps after issues with the new CT01 car forced the team to pack up early.
Afterwards, Kovalainen muttered that: "The early feeling I had from the car was good. It's far too early to tell how much we've progressed but it already feels like we’re going in the right direction.
"We obviously didn't want to end early today, but we couldn't sort out a starter shaft issue in time to get back on track.
"But I'm reasonably pleased with what we have achieved today and I know the team will put in the work tonight to get us back out on track tomorrow and pick up where we left off today."
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