After Haas whetted the appetite of racing fans last week with its online revelation of their 2020 livery for the VF-20 and its return to ‘more familiar Haas Automation colours’, the world of motorsport finally got the chance to see a 2020 challenger in the flesh when Scuderia Ferrari put on a real show at the theatre in Italy on Tuesday. Since then we have seen and heard the power of the RB 16 as Max Verstappen took it for a run around Silverstone and all this shows we have a magnificent 7 days to come before reaching Winter testing.

Upon seeing the livery of the dramatically named SF1000 – in recognition of the 2020 F1 season featuring the 1000^th Grand Prix for Ferrari - renowned F1 commentator Martin Brundle growing more and more into the footsteps of Murray Walker, tweeted:

“It’s more red this year, a good thing. More slender in the right places too. 2020 cars are purposeful but laden with ugly aero jewellery, and those engine cover sails are sneaking back in. The stopwatch never lies, so we’ll see how it goes next week. Should be a cracking season.

And now news has reached the airwaves of the RB16 and with it predictions of success.

https://www.motorlat.com/notas/f1/14570/red-bull-reveal-the-rb16

It is a well-documented fact that as promising as Red Bull may seem at times, they have finished the last three seasons with effectively the bronze medal behind Scuderia Ferrari and the all-conquering history making Mercedes-AMG Petronas. However, as Team Principal Christian Horner admitted to the world’s motorsport media, Red Bull has reached the end of a “transitional year” with Honda and now in 2020 the RB16 could see the team get their wings and fly back to the top.  

While the world of motor racing is eagerly anticipating the next F1 car launch – which at the time of writing will be Renault as today is a double header - the real excitement comes a week from today when we have the first 2020 Pre-season Winter Testing at Barcelona where over three days the teams start to put some facts alongside the features.

So, what makes the next seven days so magnificent?

The simple fact that we get to revel in the revelation of the 2020 F1 challengers still to come.

In this order – the launches of Renault, McLaren, Mercedes, AlphaTauri, Williams, Racing Point and Alfa Romeo – will all take center stage as the season hots up despite the climate outside.

Liberty Media and Formula 1 have made the level of importance shone on Winter Testing very well known. This will be the first year that the pre-season tests will be an official Formula 1 event and with a new title comes new unprecedented access.

Thanks to a unanimous agreement from the ten teams, fans will be able to follow testing in far greater detail than in the past and actually see the cars when they are not on track.

The vanity screens that would cover the behemoths of motorsport have gone and while the track is open in the morning and afternoon – so too are the front of the garages. Of course, this is the world of F1 so there are bound to be exceptions but they are few in number as the only exceptions to this are if a car needs to be repaired following a crash or a technical failure.

Alongside the live broadcasts, F1 TV is also producing various on-demand content available also to F1 TV Access subscribers – whose number continues to grow – and the press release gives all the details:

Each day in “Tech Talk”, Formula 1’s Digital Presenter, Will Buxton, will be joined by a host of guests to discuss the latest technical developments and analyse the performance of the teams. Not only this, but at the end of each three-day test, Friday 21st and Friday 28th, Buxton will host “Paddock Pass,” which will feature exclusive behind the scenes news, interviews with drivers and engineers as well as insights and analysis from former F1 drivers and pundits. For those who are hard at work during the week, there will be an on-demand programme, “What we learned” available on Saturday 22nd and Saturday 29th February. Finally, on Friday 28th, after the final chequered flag of the second session, Jolyon Palmer, who drove in 35 Grands Prix, will give an initial assessment of how things went and his prediction for the start of the season.

It seems that everyone already has something to say on the 2020 Formula One season and there will be a wealth of access and information for you to have your say too.

Now, that certainly sounds magnificent!