Ferrari’s new F1 car offers optimism
Italian team hopeful redesign will lead them to first honours since constructors title in 2008
>> ROME: Ferrari unveiled a faster and visibly changed new single seat car on Friday in which Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will bid to rival Mercedes this season.
The Italians struggled last season finishing behind Mercedes and Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.
Ferrari have not won a drivers’ championship in a decade with Finn Raikkonen the last to triumph for the team in 2007.
Having tested the new car at Ferrari’s Maranello base, Raikkonen said: “We weren’t going full tilt in the first few laps but the car seemed good.
“Obviously it was only the first contact, we’ll do more laps today but the real work will only start at the Barcelona testing.”
Four days of pre-season testing in Barcelona start tomorrow with another four days taking place in the Catalan capital the following week.
“I like the look of this car — it’s very different to last year’s one due to the new regulations,” added Raikkonen.
Named the “SF70” in reference to Ferrari’s 70 years in competition, the car is, as usual, largely red with black trim alongside a sweep of new features following regulation changes aimed at speeding up Formula One.
The SF70, the 63rd model of the Ferrari racing car, has more aerodynamic downforce and more mechanical grip on top of much wider Pirelli tyres, giving increased grip and faster cornering.
The lengthened nose and the arrow-shaped wing are also a consequence of the new regulations, as is the obvious white-coloured shark fin on the engine cover.
The hubs and wheel-caps have been altered to allow for faster wheel changes at pit stops and the enhanced braking and steering are more powerful.
The nose of the Ferrari is markedly wider than the rival Mercedes W08 unveiled at Silverstone by Lewis Hamilton on Thursday on the back of three consecutive world championship titles for the German team.
Germany’s Vettel and Raikkonen came fourth and sixth respectively in the 2016 world championships while Ferrari were third in the constructors’ standings.
The Italian outfit is challenging for a first world title since Raikkonen won in 2007, and a first constructors title since 2008.
Raikkonen is due to put the SF70 through its paces in Barcelona tomorrow as the world championships get underway in Australia on March 26.
On Thursday, Lewis Hamilton and his new Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas unveiled the W08 car at Silverstone.
The new car has a black, silver and teal chassis and has been produced to meet new regulations intended to make F1 cars faster and more demanding to drive.
Three-time champion Hamilton gave the car a spin amid blustery conditions at Silverstone, 80 miles (129 kilometres) northwest of London, before posing for pictures alongside Bottas.
“It is the most detailed piece of machinery I have seen in F1,” Hamilton said.
“This is not an actual test — it’s just a few laps to make sure the car will run. But I was able to go faster in the last couple of laps.
“It feels almost identical to last year’s car in terms of ergonomics, but you have this bigger, more powerful beast around you.”
Briton Hamilton, 32, finished second in last year’s Drivers’ Championship behind teammate Nico Rosberg, who abruptly retired at the end of the season.
Bottas, a 27-year-old Finn, has joined from Williams to succeed Rosberg.