Ferrari are fast, but are they fast enough? That question dominated the thoughts of Formula One fans throughout the two weeks of testing in Barcelona, where Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were among the quicker drivers on track.
While Mercedes seemed to seek reliability, racking up lap after lap, the Scuderia seemed intent on showing that they were serious contenders in 2016.
In the immediate aftermath of his final test earlier this month Vettel was keen to highlight that the car had taken yet another step forward. He was not so sure about how it compared to the Mercedes. 
"Overall, I'm happy with the feeling in the car. Difficult to compare it to the others," he said.
"But performance by ourselves, we are very happy with the step we have made."
Informed that Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had told reporters they expected to see more of him trying to split them on the podium, Vettel laughed, saying: "Well I hope no more than last year, I hope I will be in front of the two, that will be ideal if you ask me what we wish for."
Last year Vettel finished third in Melbourne behind the Mercedes pair, with Rosberg taking the chequered flag. Raikkonen failed to finish.
"Obviously we try to close the gap," Vettel said. "It has been quite big across the last year. We have done a very good job across the last season to get a little bit closer and now the new car gives us a chance to close the gap even a bit more. How much? I think we need to be a bit more patient for a couple of more weeks at least."
For his part, Raikkonen was - as always - cool in judging the team's performance in testing.
"I'm sure it's going to be a better car. It is already very good and what we had at the end of last year," he said. "The whole car is different, everything is new, so overall the handling is good in many areas that we felt we had to improve from last year ... they have produced a good car for us.
"I mean, who knows if it is going to be better ... I'm sure the car is already better than what we had last year. Like I said, we have improved in many areas and it's very early days."
Pushed on whether he needed to change his driving style to improve on his fourth place in last year's world championship, the Finn said: "Not really. I mean we always try to do our best, and we do mistakes.
"But I think as a group we work last year with my engineers and I think we know each other more [now] and we know what we can improve."
Raikkonen had five retirements and only three podiums in 2015. "Obviously, there were too many mistakes from my side and other issues, but we always try to learn and we just have to cut those down."
With Ferrari often seen as a standard-bearer of the sport, Vettel was quizzed in Barcelona about the chaotic way knockout qualifying rules for the new season were introduced. Asked if he thought Formula One was "broken", he replied: "I don't think it's broken," adding: "I think if you measure in terms of the races ... the show, I think Formula One is doing fine. I think in the background, yeah, the decisions lately and so on, it is fair to say it is lacking leadership.
"I think, yeah, it is a little bit chaotic if a couple of weeks before the season you start to reinvent certain rules and formats of qualifying ... I'm personally not a fan of the [new] qualifying and I think speaking on behalf of all drivers we don't get what's wrong with the old qualifying and wanting to change it. It's important the sport remains a sport.
"I can see the excitement for some people with the introduction of randomness, but I think it's important for the sport to remain a sport, so that in the end the fastest driver comes out on top ... that's been in the DNA of Formula One forever as far as I can remember, and that's the DNA of the sport starting from karting.
"Trying to change that in such an extreme manner, I think, is the wrong way to go and creates chaos and creates criticism among us the drivers, among the fans. So in that way it's fair to say it [the sport] lacks leadership."
The new qualifying rules will make their debut at the Australian Grand Prix, where the fans will get their first chance to rate how far Ferrari have come in bridging the pace gap to Mercedes.