12/12/2019
NEWS STORY
Ferrari has revealed the date on which it will unveil its 2020 contender.
Speaking at a media lunch at Maranello, team boss, Mattia Binotto has revealed that the Italian team's car will be unveiled on Tuesday 11 February, over a week before testing gets underway at Barcelona.
"We will launch the car very early," said the Italian. "I think we will be the earliest.
"The reason why we are anticipating the launch and the unveiling and then moving on is we must do some dyno homologations before going to Barcelona," he explained.
"We are launching the car on the 11 February. Soon after we've got an intense program of bench before we go to Barcelona."
Clearly the Maranello outfit is seeking to learn from the lesson of this year, when, despite pre-season form, it struggled for much of the first half of the season, particularly in terms of downforce, and also strategy.
Though there was a massive improvement after the summer break, this subsequently tapered off as questions were raised with the FIA over the legality of the Maranello outfit's engine, leading to a number of technical directives to be issued.
The opening three-day test gets underway on 19 February, with the second kicking-off a week later on the 26th.
With few significant rule changes next season, in addition to needing to close the gap to Mercedes, Ferrari will be under increasing pressure from Honda, in the second year of a partnership with Red Bull that has already three wins - the same as the Italian team in 2019.
"We cannot be the favourites," admitted Binotto, when asked of his hopes for next season. "The ones that won the championship this year, the ones that won the last titles are setting the bar and are having the fastest car by the end of the season.
"So we are the challenger," he added. "That's where we are positioning ourselves."