Ferrari launches its 2020 F1 car

Ferrari has officially launched its 2020 car, named the SF1000, at an event in Reggio Emilia, Italy.

The design of the livery has remained largely unchanged compared to 2019, with Mission Winnow branding remaining on the car.

Ferrari has retained its line-up of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc for a second season, with the latter tied down to a new multi-year contract.

Vettel enters the season in the last year of his current deal, with his whereabouts beyond the 2020 campaign up in the air. 

The Scuderia outfit will be hoping for a more successful year this time around, as it managed just three grand prix wins in 2019. It was unable to mount a championship challenge on Mercedes, who took 15 wins during the year.

Changes to bargeboards and adapted wings for sidepods

From a technical point of view, the most important changes seem to be concentrated around the bargeboards and wings for the side pods. These are more like the solution that Red Bull Racing used in recent seasons, including with so-called boomerangs. 

For the front wing, the inside of the front wing flaps are quite high and towards the end plates they are lower, which creates the outwash effect.

Another change that Ferrari has made can be seen on the air intake of the engine cover. Small horns have been added on both sides, reminiscent of a small version of the horns that were seen between 2006 and 2008 on the engine covers of a number of F1 teams.

Early on in the 2019 season, Ferrari struggled with its aerodynamic performance but held the advantage over its rivals in straight-line performance.

Throughout the year it worked to fix this, with Vettel stating at the launch of the car that the team has worked hard through the winter to change how the car is packaged. 

"It's an incredible achievement, there's a lot of hours that go into the car," said the four-time world champion. "I like it a lot. We had the opportunity to see it before and have a direct comparison to last year's car.

"You can really spot the differences when it comes to packaging and the back part of the car. Everything sits a lot tighter. There's a lot of work behind that, it's not so easy. We've found clever solutions to address that. 

I can't wait to drive it, that's more exciting than looking at it. It's fantastic, I think it's a bit more red than last year, so I think it looks great."