Ferrari reveals 2016 Formula 1 car

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Ferrari has unveiled its 2016 Formula 1 car ahead of the first pre-season test in Barcelona next week.

Drivers Sebastian Vettel, going for his first championship for Ferrari, and Kimi Raikkonen pulled the wraps off the new SF16-H at the team's base in Maranello, Italy.

Four-time world champion Vettel was certainly impressed. "It looks beautiful," he said.

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Most notable changes are the retro livery, with the car becoming the marque's first in more than two decades to feature white on the engine cover alongside the traditional scarlet.

Added to that, Ferrari has opted for an "anteater" nose for the first time since the design became prevalent in 2014, although this makes the car look vastly similar to the setup used on the rival Williams motor, which was also revealed today.

Motorsport.com says Ferrari has also made "significant" changes to the power unit specification in a bid to close down the advantage Mercedes has enjoyed since the sport switched to turbocharged V6 hybrid engines in 2014.

Combined with a new push-rod front suspension setup, as used on Vettel's Red Bull for his four world titles, this means team boss Maurizio Arrivabene has set a "clear target" of taking Mercedes on for the championship this year, says the website.

Ferrari made a good recovery last season from a disastrous campaign in 2014 - the team's first winless season since 1993. They topped the podium three times - all with Vettel - to emerge as the biggest threat to Mercedes' dominance.

However, the team is under pressure to convert threat into victory, says Sky Sports. Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has warned it will be a "tragedy" if their title dry spell nears ten years. The last man to win a drivers' championship in the red car was Raikkonen back in 2007, and the team won constructors' honours in 2008.

But in 2015, Ferrari "stepped out of the shadows", according to Autosport, and the work done over the winter should see them "push Mercedes to the wire" for the championship this season.

Their rival, meanwhile, is set to reveal its car in the Barcelona pit-lane on Monday, alongside most of the grid, in the first of two pre-season tests before the season-opening race in Melbourne on 20 March.