Niki Lauda says Ferrari's performance at the Australian Grand Prix shows it will challenge Mercedes throughout the 2016 season.
Mercedes locked out the front row with an impressive performance in Melbourne on Saturday, but its hard work was undone but impressive starts from Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen which saw the pair run one-two for the first stint of the race.
A strategic error from Ferrari during a red flag period proved costly and allowed Nico Rosberg to take victory but Lauda says the pace shown by Vettel and Raikkonen poses a serious threat to Mercedes.
"I’m afraid we will see more of this because Ferrari is quick, no question about it," Lauda said. "It’s going to be exciting and I’m looking forward to the next one."
And Lauda is pleased by Ferrari's challenge as it delivers a positive message for F1 after the debacle surrounding the new qualifying format.
"We had to apologise, which I was asking everybody to do because it was a big mistake. We have apologised so we can forget about it now and we can go to Bahrain.
"Even the communication, which was an issue before the race because more or less everything was forbidden, Charlie understood and eased that one up. Especially in a race like [Australia], where there was so much excitement, can you imagine if you would have heard nothing on the radio? It would have been really boring. So thank God we corrected this one as well."
Australian Grand Prix - Quotes of the weekend
Australian Grand Prix - Driver ratings
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