The biggest losers if Ferrari's worst fears over 2020 car come true
After a promising 2019 Formula 1 season fell short for Ferrari, the team intended to challenge for honours in 2020 - but instead, the new SF1000 doesn't look like a title contender. If that's true, both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc will have to dig deep to recover
If, as it expects, Ferrari is behind Mercedes and Red Bull in Melbourne this weekend, then it's not just Formula 1 fans hoping for a season-long three-team fight for the titles that surely will be feeling frustrated.
Just as it seemed that rules stability and the varying strengths of the designs produced by the top three teams (Mercedes - all-round downforce, Red Bull - peak downforce, Ferrari - engine power) would set up a battle for the ages in 2020, the projected order in pre-season testing led to Ferrari insisting it had slipped back.
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Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.
A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.
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