Lotus technical director Nick Chester has insisted that his team have taken encouragement from Ferrari's upturn in form and hope to close the gap to Mercedes themselves.

Despite worries about continued domination from the Silver Arrows in 2015, Sebastian Vettel won his first Grand Prix for the Scuderia in Malaysia, beating the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

However, Chester has revealed that Ferrari's success has given other teams hope that they can catch up as the season progresses.

He told reporters: "It's a long season and we're all trying to do exactly that. We've seen in this year that Ferrari have improved significantly over the winter months and it seemed that the hot track in Sepang suited them well.

"They had an improving car, a good strategy and they put it all together to take the win. It shows that with enough development Mercedes can indeed be beaten which is good for the sport.

"Rest assured we're doing everything we can at Lotus to challenge Mercedes, Ferrari and every other team as best we can over the course of the year."

Lotus finished with just 10 points last season.