Wet and cold weather resulted in Wednesday’s test day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya being a washout, with just a handful of installation laps completed.
Unseasonably cold weather compromised running on Monday and Tuesday, and the conditions deteriorated through the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The paddock reconvened in freezing and snowy conditions, with a couple of centimetres underfoot, and snow resting in the run-off areas.
While the circuit remained free of snow, the start of the session was delayed by three hours, ostensibly due to the medical helicopter being unable to fly.
The green light was shown at midday local time, as the morning snow turned into varying intensities of rainfall, and with air and track temperatures remaining very low, there was little action.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was first out just after 13:00 – the planned lunch break was cancelled once again – and a smattering of laps took place across the remainder of the day.
Alonso finished as the most productive driver, completing 11 laps, with the bulk of his running coming in the final hour, as he clocked a time of 2:21.268 on Wet tyres.
Alonso returned for another timed effort and recorded a 2:18.545 just as the chequered flag fell, almost a minute slower than the times typically set in warm and dry weather.
Daniel Ricciardo and Brendon Hartley each completed a couple of laps, the Red Bull driver skating through the Turn 5 gravel on one of his tours, while Marcus Ericsson and Robert Kubica amassed just one installation lap.
As a result, the day’s action finished with just 17 laps completed between five drivers, 11 of them by Alonso, as Mercedes, Ferrari, Force India, Renault and Haas did not take to the track.
Provisional plans to either run on Friday, or add a day to next week’s test, failed to come to fruition, after Formula 1 teams did not reach an agreement.
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