Alfa Romeo facing 2020 delay after car 'destroyed'?

Alfa Romeo's 2020 plans have been thrown into chaos after their new car was reportedly "destroyed" in its initial crash test in Milan.

Motorsport-Magazin reports that the team's first chassis was demolished in its first dynamic crash test, rendering the design unusable with less than 100 days to go before the 2020 campaign begins in Australia.

The Swiss-based team will now need to quickly come up with a new design to pass the tests before work can begin on getting the car ready for the start of pre-season testing on February 19 in Barcelona.

Ferrari and the rebranded Alpha Tauri (formerly Toro Rosso) have already announced the launch dates for their 2020 cars, with Ferrari doing so eight days before the start of testing.

However, it seems highly unlikely that Alfa Romeo will be following suit any time soon.

And it remains to be seen if the delays will carry over into pre-season testing, as happened with Williams in 2019 for different reasons.

Alfa Romeo finished eighth in the constructors' championship in 2019, with a 22-point haul at the chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix towards the ed of the season giving the team a healthy boost amid struggles to match their rivals development over the second half of the campaign.

Indeed, Interlagos was the only race in which Alfa scored among the final six events of the campaign and one of just two double points scores across the year.

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