Formula One: Ferrari threat to Mercedes in spotlight in testing opener

Ferrari’s ability to challenge Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes’ dominance of Formula One will be examined as the longest season in the sport’s history gets underway with the first series of testing in Barcelona on Monday.

Hamilton is looking for a third consecutive drivers’ championship and the fourth of his career across a mammoth 21 Grand Prix season that starts in Australia on March 20.

The Englishman coasted to the title last season as he and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg won 16 of the 19 races.

However, Ferrari showed signs of a revival with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel claiming the other three race wins, exceeding team principal Maurizio Arrivabene’s pre-season expectations.

Arrivabene is now looking for even more progress from the SF-16H to be able to challenge Mercedes with Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen — the last man to win a drivers’ title with Ferrari back in 2008 — at the wheel.

Mercedes certainly believe Ferrari will be their main obstacle to another season of dominance.

Worryingly for Mercedes’ competition, though, the double world champions ran a trouble free 98.2km on a filming day in the W07 Hybrid in Silverstone last week.

Elsewhere, all eyes will be on what improvements the McLaren-Honda partnership has developed in the off-season after a disastrous return to F1 for the Japanese manufacturer last season.

Former world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button didn’t even get on the podium as McLaren finished ninth in the constructors’ championship ahead of only Marussia, who failed to register a single point.

Red Bull will also be looking for continued improvement as they ended 2015 promisingly to finish fourth in the constructors’ championship.