There was something rather blatant missing at Renault's 2020 car launch event on Wednesday, which took place at Groupe Renault’s flagship L’Atelier Renault store on the Champs-Elysees.
While the team's management and drivers assembled en masse on stage, there was no getting around the lack of any actual car.
The R.S.20 was glimpsed only briefly in a 'teaser' video on the big screen, and even then the black livery made it hard to make out.
Asked why there was no car to present to the press, team principal Cyril Abiteboul denied that Renault's preparations for 2020 were running behind.
"If anything we are much more on schedule than we were last year," he told the media attending the launch, as reported by Motorsport.com.
"Last year we invited you guys to come to Enstone, and actually I mentioned how late we were - and that was a fact," he continued.
"It was also something that impacted reliability at the start because, when you are late, you are reacting and it is all about trying to catch a train that's gone anyway.
"This year we are ahead of schedule," he insisted, explaining that he hadn't wanted everyone pouring over press photos of stand-in 'fake' cars, micro-analysing the still-in-development new chassis, and speculating about computer renderings and 'dummy' parts.
"I got extremely frustrated from people really reacting to the cars as they they are the [actual] thing," he said. "No one is capable of presenting a [race-ready] car.
"If your team in on schedule, you don't have a car waiting here for a couple of hours or days, your car is being built and going straight to Barcelona.
"On that basis, our only option was to have a fake car, a show car altered to look like this year's car. But that is a waste of money and the results will be frankly below optimal.
"Rather than that, no car. For anyone interested in the car, look at the pictures next week [from pre-season testing in Barcelona]."
Abiteboul promised that it would be worth the wait, and that despite the R.S.20 being more of an evolution than a dramatic departure in the absence of any major regulation changes until 2021, it still represented a significant change of direction from the French manufacturer.
"This year we decided to take a bit of a different approach," he said. "We have decided to focus on performance areas, and by doing that you also work towards 2021.
"The regulations are stable [this year] so it was offering a fantastic opportunity to keep some elements of the car that have no direct responsibility towards the performance of the car.
"It doesn't mean that it is the same car, that would not look very attractive," he added. "You can be focused on 2020 then you have some extra capacity available for 2021.
"That's the logic behind what we have done," he concluded. "Whether it works or not, let's see in Melbourne on the Saturday."
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