Ferrari to use 1975-style white engine cover

Reports that Ferrari is adding a lot more white to the livery of its iconic red cars for 2016 appear accurate. La Repubblica, an Italian daily, has published what it purports to be official drafts of the livery of the new Maranello-inked car.

The report said the all-white engine cover is "inspired by the historical 312T of 1975", as driven to the world championship by Niki Lauda. Ferrari is hoping its 2016 car is good enough to challenge Mercedes, despite the German team having dominated in the new 'power unit' era so far.

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, said the silver team's 2016 car is an "evolution" of its predecessor. "Because of the stable regulations," he told Auto Motor und Sport, "there will be visible changes in only a few areas.

"Maybe at first glance in Barcelona you will not see so much that is different, unless you are an expert.  But from the second Barcelona test there may be some things that are obviously different," Wolff said.

He said he is confident in Mercedes' evolutionary approach to 2016. "There are plenty of examples in the past where teams have tried to reinvent rather than evolve, often in the belief that they had reached the end of development and needed new ways to extract potential," said Wolff.

"I am thinking of McLaren in 2012-2013.  But to make it brief: our car is an evolution of last year's model with one or two new and interesting concepts. But since we have not seen the competition, it is difficult to know what the gaps will be," he added.