Ferrari anticipate 'very intense' period after Barcelona shakedown findings

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is expecting his squad to endure a “very intense” period as it pores over the data collected from the Barcelona shakedown.

The Italian outfit completed three days of running at the event earlier this week, taking to the track on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

It tallied up 435 laps across the shakedown, trailing only Mercedes for the most mileage at the event.

Lewis Hamilton walked away with the fastest lap of the week - a morale booster for Ferrari, despite lap times being largely irrelevant at this stage.

Outlining what's upcoming on Ferrari's agenda, Vasseur said: “Next week, we'll be back at home.

“It will be very intense to have a look at what we collected the last couple of days, all the data, all the improvements that we have to do.”

The Ferrari car will return to the track in Bahrain in just over one week's time for the first of two pre-season tests at the location.

There, teams are likely to turn up the wick on their cars, which could create a clearer picture of the pecking order.

As Ferrari prepares for the test, Vasseur asserted there are many items the Maranello-based squad will seek to get through.

“We have tons of open topics for Bahrain,” he said. “In Bahrain, you have two times three [test] days.

“As usual, it will be very intense because it is just before race one, then we'll fly to Melbourne.

“It will  probably be much more representative in Bahrain than it was this week.”