2018 will be the final year Williams features the iconic Martini stripes after the Barcadi Group confirmed it would not be renewing their title sponsorship deal.

The famous brand returned to Formula 1 with the British team in 2014 but saw what was believed to be a requirement of one driver over 25 broken when Williams chose Sergey Sirotkin alongside Lance Stroll for this season.

Deputy team boss Claire Williams revealed the news when asked by Autosport about the partnership, though claimed it was simply a matter of alternative priorities which led to Barcadi's decision.

"We have discussed extending beyond 2018 and, while we would both like to do so, the Bacardi Group have told us that they will step away entirely from F1 when our contract expires at the end of this year," she said.

"They have many brands to support and obviously their strategic priorities evolve over time."

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The loss will be a big one for Williams, who have become increasingly reliant on sponsorship to bolster their budget, though with the high paying backers of both their current drivers, the impact will likely be softened.

After a winter of predicting a strong title challenge, Renault's decision to focus on reliability early in 2018 has left Red Bull boss Christian Horner worried.

Though insisting progress has been made after a number of failures late last year, the French manufacturer has admitted the power unit will not be running at full potential for the opening series of races to avoid problems.

Already facing a power deficit to rivals Mercedes and Ferrari, hearing the new RB14 could face a bigger disadvantage hasn't gone down well at the Milton Keynes-based team.

"It is a concern," Horner told Autosport. 

"Reliability has been a big priority for Renault over the winter and they have completed more mileage than they have done in this V6 era so they are coming into this year better prepared and hopefully that will allow focus to start to centre on performance.

"We're hopeful of seeing more performance and performance converging between engine manufacturers."

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The problem Red Bull and Renault also have is the class-leading Mercedes isn't standing still, with a heavily upgraded engine of their own for 2018 with an output reportedly nudging 1000 horsepower.

"If the headline figures Mercedes have quoted [are real] then the gap will only broaden," the Briton predicted.

On the first day of testing, everything went smoothly, however, as Daniel Ricciardo topped the timings and was the only man to complete over 100 laps in Barcelona.

Nico Hulkenberg believes the newly resurfaced track has "changed the characteristics" of the layout at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

On Monday, drivers got their first taste of the fresh tarmac as Formula 1 testing began in Spain, which has been an additional factor the teams and tyre supplier Pirelli have had to consider in the build-up.

Traditionally one of the hardest circuits on the tyres due to its abrasiveness as well as the number of medium and high-speed turns, the Renault driver does think that may no longer be the case.

“This is probably the smoothest track on the calendar now, it’s so flat,” Hulkenberg claimed.

“It has changed the characteristics of the track also I feel a little bit. There were corners like Turn 5 that had banking and some other corners had some warp in them and now it’s all flat. 

“So it did change the track a little bit and the new tarmac feels more grippy. Quite substantially.”

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Another problem drivers faced as testing began was the unusually cold temperatures in Barcelona which has made it almost impossible to get the slick tyres into their correct operating window.

“On my first run I was kind of scared because it felt like driving in the wet,” Hulkenberg said, revealing it took "two or three laps" to generate any heat. 

“But then when you feel lap by lap it’s getting better, the temperature comes in and the grip comes up as well. So it’s just that scenario we always see in winter testing when the track surface is really cold, it’s quite different."

Daniel Ricciardo gave Red Bull the ideal start to the 2018 season after topping the timesheets and the distance covered chart on the opening day of Formula 1 testing in Spain.

Using the medium compound tyres, the Australian set a very solid 1:20.179s moments before the lunch break and it would go unbeaten as he ended two-tenths clear of Valtteri Bottas, who also set his best time late in the morning.

Freezing temperatures and rain in the final hour restricted running in the afternoon, however, a number of laps in the wet meant the 28-year-old was the only driver to reach the 100-lap mark on Day 1.

The most notable incident on Monday was at McLaren, where Fernando Alonso spun into the gravel at the final corner on just his fifth lap after the right-rear wheel came off his MCL33.

Later, executive director Zak Brown revealed a wheelnut issue had caused the problem but it would cost the British team several hours and then because of the conditions couldn't meaningfully make up that time.

Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg had led the way for a prolonged period before the two late flyers from Ricciardo and Bottas, nevertheless, both remained within four-tenths of the leading pace in third and fourth respectively.

Hulkenberg's Renault team would go on to complete the second most laps of anyone on Monday with the German managing 72 in the morning and teammate Carlos Sainz 27 after the break, combining to just fall short of the century mark.

Toro Rosso was third on the lap count as Brendon Hartley managed 93 tours of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which is a highly positive start for their new engine supplier Honda.

The usual marathon runners Mercedes and Ferrari had solid totals with Bottas and Lewis Hamilton combining for 83, three more than Raikkonen in the Prancing Horse.

On the timesheets, Alonso was fifth fastest for McLaren with compatriot Sainz in sixth. The world champion was seventh in his Silver Arrow, fractionally ahead of Hartley.

Williams had a steady start with Lance Stroll eighth and Sergey Sirotkin last in 13th, combining for 72 laps. Romain Grosjean was 10th for Haas, ahead of Marcus Ericsson's Sauber.

Force India development driver Nikita Mazepin caused the only other red flag after going off at Turn 4 in the morning, the Silverstone-based team would complete the least laps of anyone with just 22 as a result.

Daniel Ricciardo was left bemoaning the unrepresentative weather conditions in Barcelona, as cold temperatures limited teams running on Day 1 of Formula 1 testing.

The Australian was the quickest man in the Red Bull RB14 and also completed the most laps, 105, as the Milton Keynes outfit achieved their goal of reaching the century mark on the first day.

However, in the afternoon, as clouds and later rain moved in, the track was so cold that even in the dry teams were using intermediate tyres because the slicks could not cope.

“I am a bit frustrated because, although we had a good day, when we come here in May it is a completely different track,” Ricciardo said. “So part of me wishes we were somewhere else like Bahrain where you can get some real testing in real temperatures.

“I know it is convenient for the teams here, it is close in Europe, but we learned a lot about reliability today but other than that, I don’t want to be negative but it is a bit frustrating when you can’t do too much.”

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Despite the lack of ability to test performance, the five-time Grand Prix, who is considering his future with Red Bull as he enters the final year of his contract, does see a good baseline from which to build.

“Potentially yeah, but it is very early," he said about any championship hopes. "Today was positive but the reality is that we are never going to drive in these conditions.

Force India is still aiming to change their name before the start of the new Formula 1 season in a month's time, COO Otmar Szafnauer has claimed.

Before pre-season testing began on Monday, the Silverstone-based team became the last to launch their 2018 car, doing so in the pit-lane at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Eyebrows were raised, however, at the lack of official team wear and branding in the garage with Szafnauer confirming work to change the name is still going on behind the scenes.

"There's a high probability that it will happen before the first race of this year," he told Motorsport.com. "The deadline is coming close and like anything, the closer you get to a deadline the harder you work to make sure it happens.

"We still haven't quite pinpointed what the name change will be, but we always said there will be a name change coming."

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This also comes after Force India denied recent reports of talks with British energy drinks firm Rich Energy over a £200m takeover, instead, insisting the desire to remove the 'India' aspect is to boost sponsorship opportunities.

"We've had discussions with people who say, 'If you change the name, we're more interested – although not for this year.'," the COO explained. "That's why we've got to get it right, not for this year, but for next year.

"My preference is that we do it now. If it doesn't happen now, it's not detrimental but if it doesn't happen at all, it could potentially be detrimental. It doesn't affect anything we're doing now."

Brendon Hartley was delighted with the "really positive" start made by Toro Rosso and new engine supplier Honda after a trouble-free day to begin Formula 1 testing.

The Kiwi managed 93 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in a program that was curtailed by poor weather in the afternoon, the second-highest total by an individual driver and third best of the 10 teams.

It was an achievement that highlighted the progress Honda has made in the last year, with that number of laps merely a dream with McLaren 12 months ago, and the former WEC champion couldn't have been happier.

"We were first out on track and up until the rain hit and we boxed we’d done the most laps," he said. "We had no reliability issues and I think that’s the target for Honda, especially for this first part of the season.

"It was really positive today and the driveability was great, there’s really no complaints. A perfect start from that point of view and hopefully we can build on that."

The next step for Toro Rosso and the Japanese manufacturer is to maintain that reliability as they turn the engine up, with Hartley's best lap quite steady, almost two seconds off the fastest overall set by Daniel Ricciardo.

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Another issue more specific to the 28-year-old is learning the Pirelli tyres, which has been his biggest hurdle since returning to F1 late last year.

"The tyre is a very tricky one in F1. Unlocking the tyre [performance] is one of the biggest challenges for the driver and getting it in the right window at the right time," Hartley admitted.

"Unfortunately with the weather over the next two days we might not learn as much but I’m going to be much more prepared come Melbourne than what I was going into Austin last year."

Mercedes technical director James Allison doubts the performance of the new Pirelli tyres during Formula 1 testing will be representative of the season to come.

As the action begins on Monday in Barcelona, teams are facing a tricky week ahead with temperatures well down on what would be expected even in winter with a chance of rain and even snow forecast on all four days.

That means it will be even harder for drivers to get the sensitive compounds into their correct operating window and that means the degradation and grip level of each tyre will be much different to what it was at the test in Abu Dhabi last November.

"It's going to be a challenge, but our constraints are no different to anybody else's so we just need to operate as efficiently as we can and get the maximum amount of experience in the eight days that we have available to us," Allison was quoted by Motorsport.com.

The cold weather is not the only concern either, with a new track surface around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya significantly altering the characteristics of what is traditionally one of the hardest layouts of the year on the tyres.

"This year is going to be particularly interesting because they just resurfaced Barcelona and it is a lot, lot smoother, and the sort of rubber that would be torn up last year in Barcelona testing could probably survive this year," he explained.

"But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be super-representative of the remainder of the year."

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After being very conservative in 2017, Pirelli has gone more aggressive with their rubber moving each compound a step softer as well as creating a new Hypersoft tyre for low grip, low degradation circuits with the aim of making two-stop races the norm this season.

Fernando Alonso has shrugged off the "very, very small" problem which was responsible for his spin into the gravel early on the opening day of testing on Monday.

A wheelnut failure caused the right-rear wheel to fall off rounding the final corner on his sixth lap of the morning, costing McLaren almost all the track time when conditions were at their best in Barcelona.

Given the weight of expectation on the British team to perform this season, and being the highest profile on-track incident on Day 1 of Formula 1's new season, the Spaniard was unsurprised by the amount of attention he received.

“It was a good day for you guys,” he told journalists later. "A car in the gravel makes a big thing, but there were six teams in the garage with the door closed, with the car in pieces – but there is no picture of that.

“This (the wheelnut failure) is a very, very small problem, but very graphic and very obvious."

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The problematic morning at McLaren was only more ironic given the strong start by former engine supplier Honda, who managed 93 laps with new team Toro Rosso, 44 more than the Woking-based team.

Nevertheless, Alonso's initial feeling was one of content.

“We didn’t plan to run in the morning much, we were on a different programme,” he explained. “We had a normal day in the afternoon, I’m the one who did the most laps in the afternoon. Others had a bit too many issues but [for us] it’s a very good start.

“The car felt very good here, good potential, also I think the performance side it is very early to say but everything seems to be in line with our expectations," the double world champion added.

"I think everything is quite optimistic.” 

Former Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone has warned current owners Liberty Media that Ferrari could be considering a breakaway series if they leave the sport.

It is not the first time such a scenario has been suggested with teams going as far as putting forward a calendar for a proposed alternative to F1 in 2009 before eventually, all sides signed a new Concorde Agreement.

The latest threat put forward by Ecclestone comes as disagreements continue over the future direction of F1, with Liberty keen to level the playing field financially and introduce changes to the engines in 2021.

“Some people have a new series in mind, (Ferrari chairman) Sergio (Marchionne) has spoken to other people about it," the Briton claims.

“I don’t think he does things unless he is serious and he is not the sort of guy who doesn’t do what he says he is going to do."

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Ecclestone, who maintains the position of chairman emeritus after being replaced by Chase Carey over a year ago, is also concerned that a breakaway series wouldn't be short of potential race destinations.

“If a new series started and it had the same elements as there is now, and it was cheaper for the promoters than F1 then they would immediately say ‘yes’ [to Ferrari],” he said.

“Some of them who are currently upset with the amount of money they have to pay to stage a race would join."

Despite contemplating what could be the death of the sport he mostly created, Ecclestone is hopeful this situation, like many before it, can be resolved.

“The bottom line is simple. F1 is Ferrari and Ferrari is F1," he stated. "If you go and speak to anyone in the world, they don’t care about Ferrari road cars. I’d hate to see F1 without them.”