Lewis Hamilton thinks Mercedes' dominance of Formula One will come under threat this season after some "incredible" lap times from Ferrari in pre-season testing.
Ferrari appeared to be closer to Mercedes during the two weeks of testing in Barcelona, but direct comparisons are often skewed by fuel loads and track conditions. After analysing the times with Mercedes, Hamilton believes Ferrari are a genuine threat.
"Honestly, I think we are going to have a real battle and Ferrari has really picked up its game. That's my opinion. It's still difficult to know, the car is good, but Ferrari was strong towards the end of last year and I think they have made a significant improvement from last year to this year.
"They did some incredible times at the last test in some of their long runs and I believe they didn't bring an upgrade to any of the test days, so I imagine they will bring a good package to the first race. I think you are going to see a good fight, which is what I want and we want in the sport. I'm excited about that." Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also thinks Ferrari looks competitive, but says the competitive order will not be clear until the first race in Melbourne next weekend.
"Trying to assess after testing is always tricky, but what I can say is that the car looks good and we had huge reliability. We achieved all the mileage targets we had hoped for and performance wise we should be among the top teams.
"Ferrari looked equally good and there were some interesting laps in their long-run simulation and also on the single laps that gives us an indication that their car is very fast as well. But it's like the famous saying, on Saturday on Sunday when the flag drops the bullshit stops. By then we will know whether we are good enough for another championship and good enough for race victories or not."