Reigning Australian grand prix champion Nico Rosberg is supremely confident that Mercedes will continue to dominate Formula 1 in 2015.

The German finished second to teammmate Lewis Hamilton in last year’s drivers championship, with the pair well ahead of Australian ace Daniel Ricciardo in third.

While he accepts other teams have worked feverishly to narrow that gap over the off-season, Rosberg declared Mercedes the team to beat on the eve of the season-opening race in Melbourne.

“We’re looking good: we’re very optimistic for this season,” Rosberg said.

“We just have an awesome team at the moment really.”

He acknowledged the strength of opposition but remained unequivocal.

“We are the best in F1 now. We have the best individual departments, we have the best overall team, we have the best engine factory – they’re just doing an awesome job,” he said.

“As in business, when there’s one company that’s better than all the others, it’s exactly the same here: our race team is leading the way at the moment.”

Rosberg has fond memories of the Albert Park circuit where he recorded the first of his five wins of last season.

Ricciardo stood next to him on the podium in second place before being disqualified over a fuel technicality and Rosberg said the Australian would be one to watch in Sunday’s race.

“Ricciardo is a big threat and it’s great for Australia to have such a fantastic driver in F1,” he said.

“I hope that he can do a great job this weekend, as he did last year, without the disqualification of course.”

Rosberg will again do battle with teammmate Hamilton for world champion honours, which he admitted made for a challenging team environment at times.

“The relationship has its ups and downs, but we have a base respect which is important to keep things going,” he said.

“I have to be that little bit better. Last year wasn’t quite enough. “I just need to try to look for a little bit extra.”