Alfa Romeo will unveil its 2022 contender, the C42, on 27 February, two days after the opening test concludes at Barcelona.

With F1 officially calling the three-day Barcelona test an "event" and withholding official "test" status for Bahrain, the C42 will be in action in Spain, sporting a temporary livery, before its reveal to the public on Sunday the 27th.

The car will be revealed online after which there will be a press conference featuring Frederic Vasseur, technical director Jan Monchaux; and the team’s all new line-up of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou, along with reserve driver Robert Kubica.

Today's announcement makes the Italian team the seventh to announce its launch date, with only Red Bull, Williams and Hass still to name the day.

Like many teams, Alfa Romeo announced early in 2021 that attention was to be focussed on 2022 and the rules overhaul. However, nobody realised that the Hinwil-based outfit would be MIA for much of the year that followed.

Other than a couple of brilliant starts and a few 'old-time' batles from Kimi Raikkonen little was seen or heard of the Italian team which had to wait until Monaco for its first point, courtesyo F teammate Antonio Giovinazzi.

Though the Finn scored points in Russia and Mexico its fate was sealed by George Russell either side of the summer break, thereby demoting Alfa to ninth.

For much of the season, Giovinazzi had the beter of his illustrious teammate, but the wind was clearly taken out of the Italian's sails when the team announced that he was to be dropped at season-end.

While it is to be hoped that concentrating on 2022 will be wortrh it, in reality few hold out much hope for a team, which, in its various guises, has failed to deliver the goods season after season, basically since 2008 when partnered with BMW.

While Zhou is likely to bring new sponsors, it is unlikely that the midfield will be troubled by the Chinese driver and his Finnish teammate over the course of the coming season.