Ferrari reveals its 2018 F1 car, the SF71H

The halo-fitted new car was shown off at Ferrari's Maranello base on Thursday, four days before the start of F1's pre-season testing at Barcelona.

It features the Italian marque's traditional red livery, with the colour white mostly absent from the car in contrast to its immediate predecessors.

The car is the first Ferrari F1 challenger since the 2009 machine not to feature Santander branding, following the Spanish financial giant's decision to end its grand prix racing sponsorship deals.

The Scuderia heads into the season with the same race line-up as it's fielded in the past three years, comprised of the team's most recent F1 drivers' champion Kimi Raikkonen and four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel.

Both were present at the launch, alongside the team's new development driver Daniil Kvyat and Ferrari-backed Sauber reserve Antonio Giovinazzi.

The 2018 car's predecessor, the SF70H, was Ferrari's most competitive offering in years, helping Vettel to five race wins.

It sustained a credible title challenge against the hybrid era's dominant team Mercedes for most of the season, before late-campaign accidents and engine reliability woes allowed the Silver Arrows to break away.

Ferrari's tech chief Mattia Binotto confirmed the SF71H was an "evolution" of last year's design, but also revealed the team has moved to a longer-wheelbase design, akin to the one preferred by Mercedes in 2017.

On the engine side, Ferrari is to start the season with an evolution of last year's design. It is thought to have focused on reliability in particular, given last year's problems and with F1 moving to a limit of three engines per season.