Hamilton: The best team in the world built another beautiful beast

Reigning F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton is fired up and eager to get things going as the first preseason test begins today in Barcelona.

Cleraly impressed by the Mercedes W07, Hamilton said, "The best team in the world, built another beautiful beast for us this year. Excited to get to work!"

Hamilton had his first taste of the Mercedes car that he hopes will make him Britain's first four-times Formula 1 world champion this season on Friday before the car was shipped to Barcelona.

The 31-year-old joined German team mate Nico Rosberg at a wintry Silverstone circuit for a filmed promotional day ahead of official pre-season testing that starts in Barcelona on Monday.

Between them, they covered 98.2km in the session run behind closed doors. Under Formula One rules, teams are allowed to do a maximum of 100km outside official testing on designated filming days.

Mercedes won all but three races in 2015 and have been triumphant in 32 of the last 38.

"Everything has gone very well," said technical head Paddy Lowe. "We haven't even taken the engine cover off yet in the whole morning session which is a really good sign of the reliability that we've achieved at this point."

He said the latest specification engine, even without running at full throttle, was "a little bit louder" than last year's.

Ferrari, who presented their new car online on Friday, closed the gap last year and Lowe said the Italian team would again be pushing them hard.

"We see them as our main threat coming out of where all the teams were last year," he said. "It remains to be seen how we position ourselves in the weeks to come.

"Ferrari definitely are a very strong competitor and one we worry about. It keeps us motivated to keep pushing all the time."

Hamilton will be in the new car on the first and third days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, with Rosberg driving on Tuesday and Thursday. The running order is the reverse of last year's opening test.

Meanwhile a war of words has already begun, ahead of the first test in Barcelona with Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who won four successive drivers' titles with Red Bull prior to Mercedes becoming F1's pre-eminent force, bemoaning, "the dominance of Mercedes in the past two years took away a lot of excitement for the fans."

Hamilton quipped in response, "It's pretty funny because he had four years of it and l've only had two. Until l get to his level l won't have bored them as much as he had!"