Ferrari reveals 2019 car launch date

Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene revealed the news during the Autosprint award ceremony of Caschi d'oro, which was held on Thursday evening in Milan at Garage Italia.

The unveiling of the 2019 Ferrari will take place three days before pre-season testing begins at Barcelona in Spain.

In the absence of the traditional Christmas lunch that Ferrari usually held for F1 journalists, Arrivabene took advantage of the prestigious event of the Conti Editore to reveal the launch date.

"The group led by [technical director] Mattia Binotto has been working on next year's single-seater for months now," said Arrivabene, who was accompanied at the ceremony by new signing Charles Leclerc.

"The engines are already running on the test benches and there are parts of the car that are already in production.

"The parts more related to the performance will arrive at the last moment, even if the tension increases because the time is less and less.

"On February 15 we will present the car and everything must be ready for that day.

"Of course it is early to give an overall picture of the car. Simulations are being done and we are working on the simulator, but the real test bench is only the track.

"That's where you confront yourself, comparing the data you've collected during the winter period, and especially where you confront yourself with others.

"The technicians are working hard to complete the car by February 15. We have some information from the guys who work on the simulator, but it's still too early to talk about performance."

Ferrari is the first F1 team to indicate when its 2019 car will be unveiled.

It mounted its strongest championship challenge of the turbo hybrid era in 2018, but still lost out to Mercedes with a late-season slump and did not win a race after the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of the summer break.

Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff recently gave an update on his team's 2019 design that revealed early targets for engine performance had not been achieved.