It won't be until FP3 next Saturday that we finally get to see how close to Mercedes the opposition is, particularly Ferrari. However, in the wake of the pre-season tests, where the Maranello outfit posted some "incredible times", world champion Lewis Hamilton is taking the Italian threat very seriously.

"It's not possible to know for now, because we don't know the fuel levels," he said at a media event in the in Fellbach near Stuttgart this morning, as Mercedes launched its 2016 F12 and DTM campaigns.

"But we can estimate," he continued, "and, for sure, it's looking extremely close. We need to be careful. I think we're going to have a real battle, Ferrari have seriously picked up their game."

"It is still difficult to know," he admitted, in relation to how close the Italian team might be. "The car is good but Ferrari was strong at the end of last year. I think they've made a significant improvement from last year to this year. They did some incredible times in the last test on some of their long runs. I believe that they will bring an upgrade after the test days, so you can imagine they could bring a good package for the first race.

"So I think we're going to have a fight. You are going to see a good fight, which is what I want, and it is what we want. So I'm excited about that."

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