Ferrari launches new SF15-T

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Ferrari launches new SF15-T

ESPN Staff

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Ferrari has unveiled its 2015 Formula One car, the SF15-T, from its headquarters in Maranello.

The car is a significant one for Formula One's oldest and most prestigious team as it marks the start of a new era under new management as well as coinciding with the arrival of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. The SF15-T is the first Ferrari to be fully designed under technical director James Allison and is also the first to be launched by under the new management of Maurizio Arrivabene as team principal and Sergio Marchionne as president.

Both the car and the power unit will need to be a dramatic step forward if the Italian team is to close the gap to Mercedes at the front of the field, but the car looks certainly different to the 2014 with a new longer nose to conform to new regulations and tighter bodywork towards the rear.

"The back of the car is something which is noticeably different to the 2014 car because we've been successful in pulling the bodywork much tighter to all the stuff underneath the skin," Allison said. "That's been done through a lot of work not only in the wind tunnel but also in the design part of the company to find radiator designs that were fundamentally more efficient. So for every square centimetre of radiator we are able to extract more cooling this year than last and able to close the car down at the back as a consequence."

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However, one area that remains the same is Ferrari's pull-rod front suspension, which is at odds with the rest of the field that (of the cars launched so far) run push-rod. It is a feature that is often picked up on in the media, but Allison said changing to push-rod suspension would not have provided any significant advantage and would have cost aero performance.

"Every year you set out which areas of the car you should put your effort into to try to improve them," he explained. "These are decisions that need to be taken quite carefully because when you make a choice of working on one part of the car - because you don't have infinite resources - you are effectively making a choice not to work on another part. When you decide what to work on you have to pick quite carefully the areas that are going to give maximum return for your effort.

"Push-rod or pull-rod on the front has pros and cons either side. A pull-rod is probably harder to get light and stiff, but it's probably a bit easier to get aerodynamic performance from, so it's swings and roundabouts. It's an area of the car that wasn't felt to be a problem on last year's car and therefore wasn't an area that merited investment of effort this time round on the SF15-T."

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Arrivabene said he could not yet comment on the performance of the car but believes it is at least "really sexy".

"Enzo Ferrari said a long time ago that the best car is the winning car," the new boss said. "Last year we had an ugly car and it was a non-winning car on top of this. I like the car of this year in terms of aesthetics, I don't know about performance, but it's really sexy."

Arrivabene has already set two wins at the team's target for 2015 and admits that dreaming of championship success would be setting the bar too high at this stage in the team's comeback.

"I'm just realistic. Nobody has the magic to change things when things are unchangeable. The car was ready actually in December this year and we applied certain modifications that in our opinion are quite interesting. With that I don't want to say we are going to win the world championship, but for sure we are committed to win at least two races."

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[bbowser]

Pretty cool looking car. I'm not up at all on the F1 circuit, what do they run for engines these days? Is it a spec engine like Indycars or does each manufacturer have their own design?

[Exotics_Builder]

I sure hope they will be very competitive this year, although I believe Formula 1 is trying to emulate NASCAR with all its rules games. I wish Ferrari would seriously get back into LeMans and other Sports Car racing.

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Pretty cool looking car. I'm not up at all on the F1 circuit, what do they run for engines these days? Is it a spec engine like Indycars or does each manufacturer have their own design?

No No No!! Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda and Renault are the engine manufactures. They run hybrid turbo charged V6 engines. Renault claims 850 bhp from its new engine. There is talk of allowing 1000 bhp engines by 2017 but no firm commitment yet.

[Crazy Ed]

All I'm hopin' for this season is a Race between 2 or 3 Teams, not 2 Team Members as has been the case lately.

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All I'm hopin' for this season is a Race between 2 or 3 Teams, not 2 Team Members as has been the case lately.

We can only hope.

[bbowser]

All I'm hopin' for this season is a Race between 2 or 3 Teams, not 2 Team Members as has been the case lately.

I think this is why F1 is not more popular in the states. Nearly every race I've watched over the last few years is won by whoever gets to turn 1 on the first lap. Parades are nice but.....

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Rosberg: Ferrari pace 'an eye-opener' for Mercedes

ESPN Staff

February 3, 2015

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Nico Rosberg says Mercedes has been surprised by the pace of Ferrari in the opening days of the Jerez test.

Ferrari-powered cars have topped all three days of testing so far in Jerez, with Sauber's Felipe Nasr going quickest on Tuesday. Rosberg clocked the most laps of anybody on his second day behind the wheel but he says the early runs from Ferrari have caught the attention of everyone in the garage.

"The general feeling is a feeling that we've come a long way as a team, we're a strong team," Rosberg said when asked about his early impressions. "We're keeping an eye on the opposition and especially Ferrari has been an eye-opener for us in the last couple of days. But still, we're confident we can start the season well and in terms of development be strong."

Rosberg clocked up 151 laps on Tuesday to add to the 157 he completed on the opening day, something the German says highlights Mercedes' focus on reliability over performance at this stage following several key retirements in 2014.

"Our goals here are to do mileage, because last year our weakness was reliability so we have a big focus on that and to have a really reliable car this year because it cost us points and things like that last year. That's been the goal because it's important to see the problems now when you still have time before Melbourne. The problems you see in Barcelona, there's a shorter time to Melbourne so it's more difficult to solve them. Anything you find here is going to be easy to solve, or much easier.

His day was not all plain sailing, with a stoppage on track after lunch caused by an engine shutdown, though Rosberg thinks Mercedes are learning all the time.

"We did find some weaknesses on the car already but they are going to be easy to fix, so we're on the right track