MARENELLO, Italy- Despite having heavy snow outside which prevented the Scuderia Ferrari team from testing their new F2012 formula one challenger to all of the waiting media Friday morning, the Italian team nonetheless made an online presentation with a car that was not very impressive as far as looks were concerned, but according to Team manager Stefano Dominicali, it is not looks that makes the difference, but how the car will perform against the others.
“Actually it’s not really so pretty from my personal perspective but this is a value that doesn’t count in Formula One,” Domenicali said. “As you know these choices are from both technical regulation constraints and the choices to try to maximize the performance of the car. As our chairman (Luce di Montezemolo) has already said the fact that it’s ugly or very nice doesn’t count a lot, the most important thing is the car has to be performing.”
The new car itself features a complete radical design of having an obvious stepped front nose as well as a deep front wing. With only one victory last season in Britain with Fernando Alonso, the team is definitely looking for a new direction.
The two drivers from last year remain, but considering that Alonso has a long term deal with the team, Brazilian Felipe Massa is in his last year, and must put up some good results or face the chance of losing his place in the squad. But Massa himself was very upbeat at the presentation, and was pleased with the new car.
“It really looks very aggressive,” Massa said. “This was part of my dreams. I know there was quite a lot of brainstorming when it comes to the new car. We always wanted to develop new models so I am impressed with the new car.”
But the inclement weather might have put some of the ideas of how the car would be run, but Dominicali was encouraged that the team had tried to do different things, but would be better satisfied if the results could be done this year on the track.
“I’ve asked in a change in approach in the design of the car and apparently what we can see from the car that we have launched just now is it’s for sure very different. It’s a different approach both from the mechanical point of view and also from the aero dynamical point of view. So that is for sure something that it seems that we have achieved, but I will be happy only when I will see that this car will be competitive.” Concluded Dominicali.
Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.