Mercedes duo looking forward to Ferrari battle

The one big change that Formula One witnessed from the opening round of 2015 in comparison to the closing round of 2014 was Ferrari.

The Italian team have taken big steps forward with their power-train, Ferrari power has clearly leapfrogged Renault and in Australia both Ferrari and customer team Sauber benefited hugely from these developments.

One swallow doesn’t make a spring so it is far too early to say, but their aero package also looked improved as not only have they leapfrogged Red Bull Racing due to the poor Renault engine, but they also got past the Mercedes powered Williams in Australia to make them the best of the rest behind Mercedes AMG.

In Melbourne qualifying the Ferrari’s were 1.4 seconds slower than Hamilton’s pole position time and Sebastian Vettel finished 34.5 seconds behind a cruising Lewis Hamilton.

Despite Vettel’s team-mate Kimi Räikkönen being forced to retire due to a botched pit-stop, there was enough potential there for both Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to get excited about a potential Mercedes v Ferrari battle in 2015.

‘The Ferraris have taken a huge step forward, so we definitely cannot back off because I’m sure they’re going to be pushing, I anticipate we might have a good fight with them at some stage.’ Hamilton told the BBC.

Rosberg added: ‘I hope we can have a good fight. That would be awesome.

‘The next couple of races we’re going to be leading the way and we’re going to try and keep it that way, but we know it would be good if they can come a bit closer, as long as they don’t come too close.’

But whilst the Mercedes pair appeared to be pushing the mantra of spirit of competition for the good of the sport, Vettel didn’t believe them.

‘Do you really hope so? Seriously? You finished 30 seconds ahead of us and you hope it’s going to be closer? So you hope to slow down? Is that what you’re saying?’