Ferrari's 2014 race car got its first bite of action in the opening set of Formula One pre-season tests at the Spanish circuit of Jerez on Tuesday.

There was excitement at seeing the new F14-T, which was unveiled at Ferrari's Maranello headquarters at the weekend, make its first moves and at seeing former world champion Kimi Raikkonen back behind the wheel.

But the Italian team's thoughts remained with their former driver and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who has been in a coma since suffering head injuries in a skiing accident in France almost a month ago.

Indeed, the F14-T carried the message "Forza Michael" as it made its debut in Jerez.

Ferrari have also started publishing on their website the first of 72 messages of support for Schumacher to represent each of his grand prix wins with them between 1996 and 2006.

The team are hoping that the F14-T will enable them to end a long dry run, with their last constructor's championship win dating to 2008 and the last drivers' title going back to when Finn Raikkonen won in 2007 during his first stint with the team.