Sebastian Vettel believes Mercedes is still the favourite ahead of this weekend’s season opener in Australia, but he is confident Ferrari has closed the gap.
Ferrari was Mercedes’ closest challenger in 2015, but despite scoring three victories the team still found itself a little way off the pace of the two W06s.
The Maranello-based squad set the pace on pre-season testing but while Vettel thinks Ferrari will be closer, he feels it will take a few races to properly discover the pecking order.
"I think we have," he said in the FIA press conference when asked if Ferrari has made enough progress to trouble Mercedes.
"Obviously the question is whether we are ready in time, but I think we are on a good track.
"We are making progress, we did so last year and I think we did a step over the winter, but as I said, whether it is big enough, we need to wait and see during the first couple of races.
"For sure our target is to turn things around. I think we will be closer than last year, especially I think in the race. But going into this season I don't think it is a surprise when I say that Mercedes is still the favourite. But as I said, we will try and become the favourite in the future."
Replying to a question on whether he would be surprised if Ferrari was not as close to Mercedes as expected, he said: "Obviously the project of this year’s car started very early so I think it is definitely a big improvement, big step forward overall.
"From the outside it’s easy to see the main differences but I think especially on the inside we’ve done a very, very nice job and it allows us to be, first of all, quicker from the start and also have more chance of improving throughout the year.
"We know that Mercedes in the last two years have built a very, very strong and solid platform for the whole package. The bar is high, but we’re pushing, pushing very hard."
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