Formula One testing: Vettel in red and the return McLaren-Honda the highlights in Jerez

Formula One teams are all set for their first taste of on-track action this year at Spain’s Jerez circuit on Sunday. The four days of running at the 4.4 kilometer-long circuit in southern Spain will give teams their first chance to run their new cars after months of development.

In this initial stage, teams typically bed in their new cars rather than pushing the envelope. Mercedes, which thoroughly dominated last year with 16 wins out of 19 races, are again expected to be the team to beat.

While the tests will offer little in terms of the shape of the 2015 competitive order, there are still enough riveting storylines around them. Here we take a look at a few points that merit attention:

VETTEL IN RED

The Jerez test will mark Sebastian Vettel’s debut as a Ferrari driver. Both Vettel and Ferrari find themselves at a crossroads heading into the 2015 season and the move comes at a time when both need to reassert themselves in Formula One after a humbling 2014 season.

Vettel’s Ferrari move has parallels Michael Schumacher’s own Ferrari switch back in 1996 and is the younger German’s chance to emulate his boyhood hero and return Ferrari to greatness.

But results will not be instantaneous and expectations are low, with new Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene setting a target of “at least two wins.”

THE RETURN OF MCLAREN-HONDA

Honda returns to Formula One after a six-year hiatus as engine supplier to McLaren, renewing one of the most iconic and successful partnerships in the sport’s history.

McLaren-Honda dominated Formula One in the late 80s and early 90s, winning 44 races and eight championships between 1988 and 1992.

The team underwhelmed with their new 2015 livery - unveiled earlier this week - but performance on the track is what will count at the end of the day. However, getting to grips with the new turbo-hybrid Formula will be no easy task and the combination is unlikely to get anywhere close to repeating its past success in the first year of its reunion.

The return of Ferrari refugee Fernando Alonso adds a mouth-watering sub-plot to the storyline. His last marriage with McLaren ended in acrimonious divorce after just a single season together. Their reunion now is borne more out of need than rekindled love and it will be fascinating to watch this relationship unfold.

BETTER LOOKING CARS

Apart from fresh new liveries unveiled by teams like Sauber, the most visually striking difference between last year’s cars and the 2015 machines is a new look front-end. Last year, new rules governing the front end of the cars were introduced to lower the noses for safety reasons. That, however, led to some ungainly looking and extreme solutions that created – in most cases – a proboscis-like nose protruding from the front of the cars.

The rules have been tightened this year for aesthetic reasons and while in some cases a slight proboscis-like protrusion remains, some of the cars unveiled so far – like the new Ferrari – look absolutely striking.

THE TEAMS

Only eight teams will be in action at this weekend’s test in Jerez. Force India, among the first to unveil their 2015 livery, albeit on last year’s car, have opted to skip the first test and will instead be in action for the final two tests in Barcelona. The team has said this is because they want more development time with the new VJM08 and has quashed speculation that their absence from the first test has been prompted by financial trouble.

Marussia and Caterham will also be absent from the test. Both teams have been included on the official season entry list but have been marked with an asterisk as subject to confirmation. The two backmarker squads ran out of funds and administrators are still trying to find a way to rescue them. There have been rumours of a secret buyer for Marussia emerging recently but nothing more concrete and time for both teams is running out.