Ferrari has wasted little time in announcing they plan to launch their 2020 Formula 1 car on February 11th next year.

The Italian team is one of only a handful of squads who still reveal their new designs the old-fashioned way, having a big event at their Maranello factory.

That alone makes it already much more inspiring than the renderings some put out via social media and also the not-so-glamorous unveilings in the pit-lane ahead of the first test in Barcelona.

Still, next year's Ferrari, as always developed under the code name 669, will be one of the most anticipated following the disappointment of 2019 when the chassis couldn't match the competitiveness of their engine.

“We will launch the car very early. I think we will be the earliest,” team boss Mattia Binotto explained to reporters at Ferrari’s Christmas media lunch.

“The reason why we are anticipating the launch and the unveiling and then moving on is we must see some dyno homologations before going to Barcelona."

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As for how the Scuderia is approaching 2020, he added: “We didn’t have the best car in 2019, Abu Dhabi is straightforward, so, we cannot be the favourites.

“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, eventually, the challenger. That’s where we are positioning ourselves.”

Also crucial will be the relationship between drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc after the Monegasque caused a stir in his first year in red.

That led to some tensions at the end of the year including a collision in Brazil, but Binotto remains calm.

“We have a great driver pairing, not an explosive one,” he said.

“Our drivers are very fast and very ambitious. Nevertheless, what happened in Brazil should not have happened. Even if it was just a small contact, it still had a big impact.

“But outside the car, Sebastian and Charles are good with each other. They know that the collision was unacceptable and they talked about it in private. They know the way we want to go and they know that the team always comes first.

“There is a good atmosphere and the perception from the outside is a deceptive one. They talk to each other, they exchange information, they are open. I do not think it’s difficult to manage the two.”