Ferrari forsakes Maranello for 2020 car launch

Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari SF90 on the grid.

Ferrari has announced that the media launch of this year's F1 challenger on February 11 will not take place at the company's main headquarters in Maranello.

Instead the grand unveiling will take place 20 miles away in one of Italy's grandest theatres, the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia in the north of the country.

“We have chosen Reggio Emilia, because 223 years ago, this city was where the tricolour was born and later adopted as the flag of unified Italy,” the fiercely patriotic squad explained.

“The Valli Theatre is therefore the perfect setting to reveal Scuderia Ferrari’s latest car," the team's statement added.

Ferrari announces 'early' launch date for 2020 challenger

The presentation will be be live-streamed on the Scuderia Ferrari website and Facebook page from 5.30pm GMT. Drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel and team boss Mattia Binotto will be at the event, along with other major figures from the Ferrari team.

Following on from 2018's SF71H and the SF90 last year, the team is yet to reveal the name of the new car which is currently simply referred to as Project 671.

Binotto told Ferrari's magazine that he was optimistic that the team could finally get back to winning titles in 2020. "We have all the requisites needed to do well," he insisted. "But nothing is taken for granted.

"Our adversaries are, like us, also strengthening themselves in order to improve," he warned. "The level of competition has never been so high."

However reports this week from Germany’s Auto Bild citing 'reliable sources within Ferrari' suggest the team's engineers are concerned by the results of recent wind tunnel tests after the team decided to adopt the Red Bull approach of a very steep rake angle for the bottom of the car.

So far, five teams have announced when they will be taking the covers off their new 2020 cars, with Ferrari's unveiling currently set to be the earliest.

The team says it wanted an early slot in order to give them time afterwards to carry on developing the car before the start of testing.

After that, Renault will be showing off its new chassis to the press on February 12 followed by McLaren inviting the media to the McLaren Working Technology in Woking to reveal the MCL35.

February 14 is shaping up to be a busy day, with AlphaTauri holding its event in Salzburg, Austria and Mercedes also selecting Valentine Day to show off its new contender at Silverstone in the UK.

Red Bull, Racing Point, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams are yet to announce their own plans.

Pre-season testing gets underway the following week, with three days of track time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya between February 19 and 21 . A second test will take place the following week between February 26 and 28.

After that, it's non-stop to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix which will get the season underway on March 15.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.