As Abu Dhabi is the last race of the 2014 Formula 1 season and there is a test to follow, developments were sparse; save for in the case of McLaren.
The team has been busy during the past week, with the Red Bull-inspired front wing tried by Kevin Magnussen during Friday practice grabbing the attention, but there was also the recent shakedown of the Honda-engined version of the MP4-29.
The new front wing is part of McLaren's significant late-season development push, which has helped to make it a regular top five finisher.
Peter Prodromou, the team's new-from-Red-Bull head of aerodynamics, has been key to this new front wing.
A revised front wing was first raced in Russia; an interim step now followed by a significant makeover of the car's front-end aero.
It's understood that the brake ducts and the turning vanes have also changed as part of the package.
In just nine weeks since he started back at McLaren after leaving Red Bull, Prodromou and McLaren's aero department have designed, simulated, tested and constructed a complete front wing assembly.
In achieving this task, he had leant heavily on his work at Red Bull and has applied the same concepts as used on the RB10.
So McLaren now has a very similar wing set-up to the Red Bull team, retaining no obvious features from the wing normally fitted to the MP4-29.
Starting with the main front wing, there are now five full-width elements replacing the old three/four element wing.
With this design, more of the wing is aggressively producing downforce. On the endplate, McLaren's old concept of a twisted vane mounted to the footplate has been given over to a straighter vane with a cut-out to allow airflow to pass under it.
Lastly the cascade winglets are all new and feature a pair of conjoined winglets replacing the old winglet and vane set-up.
Looking at the new and old wing, both appear to achieve similar aims of downforce production and airflow management along the rear of the car.
The change may well be more to do with the potential and the intricacies of the flow structures.
So the wing may not be an immediate step on from the old wing, but will offer the team greater rewards as more of the car is altered to accommodate these new airflows.
While the wing may appear to be carbon copy of the current Red Bull wing, that's clearly far from the case.
The concepts are clearly very similar, but the geometry of the main wing is quite different around the tips, as are the details of the flaps and other hardware attached to the wing.
The front wing must be a significant step forward for McLaren. If not, the team would have waited until the post-race test on Tuesday and Wednesday rather than risking compromising a race weekend to try it out.
FIRST HONDA RUN
At a cool Silverstone circuit the week before the Abu Dhabi race, McLaren had its first run with the new Honda power unit.
What's been termed the MP4-29H (H for Honda) was run on a promotional day.
Due to the format of the test, mileage was limited and special hard 'promotional' compound tyres were used.
Both for simplicity and comparative purposes, the car was outwardly identical to the current MP4-29, albeit using some of the more open cooling options fitted to the engine cover.
Under the skin, the car is very different in order to package the different ancillaries of the Honda power unit.
This task is partly aided by the regulations mandating the volume the power unit sits within and engine and gearbox mounting points.
But all other aspects of the installation will be different between Mercedes and Honda.
Honda did release press images of its power unit. The heavily retouched pictures suggested the car is fitted with a turbo in the conventional position, as per the Renault power unit, but the reality of the Honda installation may well be different.
TORO ROSSO
Toro Rosso has an unchanged car for Abu Dhabi, but conducted an unusual test whereby the exhaust tailpipe was fitted with sensors.
Inside the end of the exhaust a cross-shaped sensor was fitted with electrical cables emerging from it.
It can be guessed that the sensor was trying to map the exhaust plume, as this is at least partly used to blow under the monkey seat for a small aerodynamic effect.
WILLIAMS
A new shape of cooling bodywork tried in the first practice session led to an unusual failure.
The sidepod on Valtteri Bottas's car was ripped off, exposing the power unit installation beneath.
According to Williams performance chief Rob Smedley, the new bodywork caused a pressure difference between its upper and lower surfaces, lifting the bodywork up and ripping it away from its mountings.
As a result of this some of the bodywork panels permanently bonded to the monocoque were damaged and repairs were required to the carbon fibre.
With the bodywork discarded, the car returning to the pits shows how large the coolers within the sidepod are.
The left sidepod houses coolers for the engine oil and water, plus the ERS cooler.
The smaller ERS cooler mounted at the front of the sidepod even features a blanking plate, which was also partly taped over. This is done in order to keep the batteries working in the correct operating temperature window.
To make space for these coolers, the car runs a very long fuel tank, although its actual capacity is 30 per cent less than last year's, so it's now able to be much narrower, allowing for even more space for the coolers.
The images also show how diminutive the power unit is within the bodywork. The space above the engine is used to route the hot air from the radiators towards the outlet on the tail of the engine cover.
The path of the air exiting the radiator is smoothed by the shaped heat shields, which are nowadays as much for internal aerodynamics as for thermal protection.
Further aiding the path of the exiting air flow is the tucked in exhaust system, which for the Mercedes runners is particularly compact.
LOTUS
Following Force India's lead in the light of a clampdown on pit to driver communications, Lotus has also trialled the larger steering wheel display.
For 2014, teams had the option of a new full colour LCD dash display, rather than the simpler LED unit used since 2008.
Several teams elected to stick with the simpler display as the driver needed only minimal information from the dashboard with radio communication being more effective.
As this detailed communication from the pitwall is to be drastically reduced next year, the opportunity to transfer some of the the information to the dash now makes the LCD dash much more attractive.
Therefore, Lotus has developed a new carbon fibre moulding to reposition the switches and package the 4.3-inch display into the top of the wheel.
CATERHAM
Arriving with a last minute injection of funds, the pair of CT05s appeared with a familiar technical specification.
The newer Japanese GP-spec front wing was available, although many of the smaller unseen parts are a mix of specifications, based on what stock was available back at the factory, as the team was unable to manufacture or buy in parts specifically for this race.
As Abu Dhabi is the last race of the 2014 Formula 1 season and there is a test to follow, developments were sparse; save for in the case of McLaren.
The team has been busy during the past week, with the Red Bull-inspired front wing tried by Kevin Magnussen during Friday practice grabbing the attention, but there was also the recent shakedown of the Honda-engined version of the MP4-29.
The new front wing is part of McLaren's significant late-season development push, which has helped to make it a regular top five finisher.
Peter Prodromou, the team's new-from-Red-Bull head of aerodynamics, has been key to this new front wing.
A revised front wing was first raced in Russia; an interim step now followed by a significant makeover of the car's front-end aero.
It's understood that the brake ducts and the turning vanes have also changed as part of the package.
In just nine weeks since he started back at McLaren after leaving Red Bull, Prodromou and McLaren's aero department have designed, simulated, tested and constructed a complete front wing assembly.
In achieving this task, he had leant heavily on his work at Red Bull and has applied the same concepts as used on the RB10.
So McLaren now has a very similar wing set-up to the Red Bull team, retaining no obvious features from the wing normally fitted to the MP4-29.
Starting with the main front wing, there are now five full-width elements replacing the old three/four element wing.
With this design, more of the wing is aggressively producing downforce. On the endplate, McLaren's old concept of a twisted vane mounted to the footplate has been given over to a straighter vane with a cut-out to allow airflow to pass under it.
Lastly the cascade winglets are all new and feature a pair of conjoined winglets replacing the old winglet and vane set-up.
Looking at the new and old wing, both appear to achieve similar aims of downforce production and airflow management along the rear of the car.
The change may well be more to do with the potential and the intricacies of the flow structures.
So the wing may not be an immediate step on from the old wing, but will offer the team greater rewards as more of the car is altered to accommodate these new airflows.
While the wing may appear to be carbon copy of the current Red Bull wing, that's clearly far from the case.
The concepts are clearly very similar, but the geometry of the main wing is quite different around the tips, as are the details of the flaps and other hardware attached to the wing.
The front wing must be a significant step forward for McLaren. If not, the team would have waited until the post-race test on Tuesday and Wednesday rather than risking compromising a race weekend to try it out.
FIRST HONDA RUN
At a cool Silverstone circuit the week before the Abu Dhabi race, McLaren had its first run with the new Honda power unit.
What's been termed the MP4-29H (H for Honda) was run on a promotional day.
Due to the format of the test, mileage was limited and special hard 'promotional' compound tyres were used.
Both for simplicity and comparative purposes, the car was outwardly identical to the current MP4-29, albeit using some of the more open cooling options fitted to the engine cover.
Under the skin, the car is very different in order to package the different ancillaries of the Honda power unit.
This task is partly aided by the regulations mandating the volume the power unit sits within and engine and gearbox mounting points.
But all other aspects of the installation will be different between Mercedes and Honda.
Honda did release press images of its power unit. The heavily retouched pictures suggested the car is fitted with a turbo in the conventional position, as per the Renault power unit, but the reality of the Honda installation may well be different.
TORO ROSSO
Toro Rosso has an unchanged car for Abu Dhabi, but conducted an unusual test whereby the exhaust tailpipe was fitted with sensors.
Inside the end of the exhaust a cross-shaped sensor was fitted with electrical cables emerging from it.
It can be guessed that the sensor was trying to map the exhaust plume, as this is at least partly used to blow under the monkey seat for a small aerodynamic effect.
WILLIAMS
A new shape of cooling bodywork tried in the first practice session led to an unusual failure.
The sidepod on Valtteri Bottas's car was ripped off, exposing the power unit installation beneath.
According to Williams performance chief Rob Smedley, the new bodywork caused a pressure difference between its upper and lower surfaces, lifting the bodywork up and ripping it away from its mountings.
As a result of this some of the bodywork panels permanently bonded to the monocoque were damaged and repairs were required to the carbon fibre.
With the bodywork discarded, the car returning to the pits shows how large the coolers within the sidepod are.
The left sidepod houses coolers for the engine oil and water, plus the ERS cooler.
The smaller ERS cooler mounted at the front of the sidepod even features a blanking plate, which was also partly taped over. This is done in order to keep the batteries working in the correct operating temperature window.
To make space for these coolers, the car runs a very long fuel tank, although its actual capacity is 30 per cent less than last year's, so it's now able to be much narrower, allowing for even more space for the coolers.
The images also show how diminutive the power unit is within the bodywork. The space above the engine is used to route the hot air from the radiators towards the outlet on the tail of the engine cover.
The path of the air exiting the radiator is smoothed by the shaped heat shields, which are nowadays as much for internal aerodynamics as for thermal protection.
Further aiding the path of the exiting air flow is the tucked in exhaust system, which for the Mercedes runners is particularly compact.
LOTUS
Following Force India's lead in the light of a clampdown on pit to driver communications, Lotus has also trialled the larger steering wheel display.
For 2014, teams had the option of a new full colour LCD dash display, rather than the simpler LED unit used since 2008.
Several teams elected to stick with the simpler display as the driver needed only minimal information from the dashboard with radio communication being more effective.
As this detailed communication from the pitwall is to be drastically reduced next year, the opportunity to transfer some of the the information to the dash now makes the LCD dash much more attractive.
Therefore, Lotus has developed a new carbon fibre moulding to reposition the switches and package the 4.3-inch display into the top of the wheel.
CATERHAM
Arriving with a last minute injection of funds, the pair of CT05s appeared with a familiar technical specification.
The newer Japanese GP-spec front wing was available, although many of the smaller unseen parts are a mix of specifications, based on what stock was available back at the factory, as the team was unable to manufacture or buy in parts specifically for this race.