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Scuderia Ferrari has become the first Formula 1 team to publicise the launch date of its 2024 challenger.
Ferrari's new car, its third of the current regulations cycle, will be unveiled on February 13, a day earlier than it had showcased its 2023 predecessor.
That car, the Ferrari SF-23, hit the track immediately for its shakedown debut during its launch at the team's Fiorano test track.
Ferrari is yet to unveil the name of the 2024 follow-up or any specific details about the launch, though.
"The launch will take place on the 13th of February, the day before Valentine’s Day, and then you will see the rest on the 13th!" laughed team principal Fred Vasseur in a recent media appearance at Maranello as he confirmed the date.
He also joked the launch date had shifted from last year "because we will have one more day before the test!" - before admitting that the tight turnaround before official testing was indeed a debut.
The F1 grid will again gather in Bahrain for collective testing this year, but the sole three-day test will begin two days earlier than the year before, on February 21 instead of February 23.
The first race will then take place just over a week after the test's conclusion.
"We have the test a bit before and it’s quite a challenge to put everything together," said Vasseur.
"It means we had no other option. I think also some other teams are doing it on the 14th, but it’s quite challenging to be ready for Bahrain."
The new car
The SF-23 was the only car besides the dominant Red Bull RB19 to record a grand prix win this year - but was ultimately a disappointment relative to its predecessor, with Ferrari dropping one place to third in the constructors' standings compared to 2022.
Asked whether the new Ferrari constituted a 'revolution' in terms of design compared to the SF-23, Vasseur said: "I don’t know if it is the right word. We have the same regulations now three years in a row, you can't change massively the situation.
"Again, it’s tenths of a second, it means that it's 0.1 or 0.2% of performance that we are looking for. For sure, we have to do a step and I don’t underestimate this step.
"And it will be... 'revolution' is your word, we are changing 95% of the components of the car, perhaps you can consider that it's a revolution, I don't know if it will be.
"Now the expectation, the expectation is that we are focused on ourselves, we are doing a good step forward but in the end it's always a matter of comparison. You can improve by 100, if the others are improving by 120 you will look stupid, if they are improving by 80 you will look like a mega-hero.
"So far, the most important is to continue to push, to continue to develop, to have the drivers into the middle of the project and they are fully involved in the development. So far we are going in the right direction, I don't know if the others will go more or less [in the right direction], that we will see in Bahrain."
