Vettel quickest in F1 testing opener

But before launching into the debut of the new auto and the first day’s testing of the new season in Barcelona, Hamilton said: “That’s pretty amusing because he had four years of it and l’ve only had two. The good thing is that he does what he believes to be right and he stands by it. It’s hard to talk him out of anything”, he said of Putin.

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Lap times in testing are notoriously unreliable indicators of true form and Ferrari have topped Day One of testing in each of the last two years only for Mercedes to dominate the season.

The 11 teams can put out a single auto on each of the test days with Hamilton getting the nod for Mercedes on Monday and Wednesday this week, with Rosberg behind the wheel Tuesday and Thursday.

“It’s been an unbelievable day”, a beaming Hamilton said.

Amongst the areas that pleased Vettel was his new car’s engine performance, but he was cautious not to read too greatly into Ferrari’s top spot on Monday. We are looking at exactly how we could do it. The vehicle they “revealed” last week at a livery launch was an old one, repainted with new colours and branding.

However, team boss Eric Boullier earlier sounded a note of caution by stating that their performance was “not good enough” during the morning session.

Vettel admitted he was slightly frustrated not to get more time on the track, but is confident the SF16-H is a significant improvement on last year’s auto.

Red Bull has already warned that the team likely won’t peak until the second half of the season.

Newcomer Haas, the first American-led team in F1 since 1986, faced a mechanical issue in its first F1 run when the front wing of the auto driven by Frenchman Romain Grosjean fell off on the main straight. Coming back on the result today, it is nice but it doesn’t mean much.

While Ferrari is taking an obviously bold step in its bid to beat Mercedes this year with an innovative vehicle, Williams’ FW38 looks nearly identical to its predecessor. The new Haas team are U.S.-owned but have their European base in England.

The famous British team cobbled together a paltry 27 points last term following their renewed relationship with Japanese manufacturer Honda.

“We’ll make no predictions as to when those wins will come, but I can say without fear of contradiction that every member of our team has worked with truly relentless dedication over the past few months”.

Renault, meanwhile, struggled on return to the Formula 1 circuit as a constructor but the Mercedes-powered Williams looked solid, as did Red Bull.