Raikkonen debuts new Alfa Romeo at Fiorano

Kimi Raikkonen today debuted the new Alfa Romeo Racing car for 2019 at Fiorano, Italy. Ferrari's private test track welcomed the so far unnamed new Alfa Romeo in a particular quadrifoglio testing livery.

The car appeared to have a valentine special livery, sporting red hearts and "quadrifoglios" on the black car.

Most of the interest went towards the front wing however, which is completely different to other cars that were seen so far. Instead of going for a traditional approach of maximizing the permitted dimensions of the front wing to create downforce, the flaps on Alfa's front wing do not run onto the endplates.

Instead, the flaps appear to be missing a section ahead of the front wheels.

It's unclear how far along Alfa Romeo is committed to this approach, but it's certain that this frong wing design has a major impact on airflow around the front wheels, and hence also its wake, and rear car downforce. If it would prove other teams can find more downforce with traditional front wings, switching back might not be an easy task.

After the test, Alfa Romeo is packing up and shipping to Barcelona, where the car will be officially unveiled in the Barcelona pitlane on Monday morning on the first day of pre-season testing.

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