2009 Ferrari sees light of day

Mr. Presentable

Looks great, I think. Anyone else's cars seen yet?

http://english.gazzetta.it/Motor_sports/Primo_Piano/2008/11/12/ferrarinuova.shtml

EvilMonkey

Is it not the 2008 car with some 2009 spec bits stuck on?

aidan_dunne

That's just a picture of this year's car used for the purposes of the article, it's got nothing to do with next year's car at all. The cars next year will have a narrower and taller rear wing, a larger front wing and all the other aerodynamic bits and pieces all over the bodywork will be banned, given a much cleaner, sleaker look (which, as F1 cars, they should have anyway. The cars of the past few years have looked like dogs with all those Airfix bits stuck on, in my opinion).

Having seen the rear wing for next year on the Williams in testing a few weeks back, I didn't realise how narrow it would be. I expected something more akin to the rear wings we saw on the cars in the late 80's/early 90's or something along the lines of a wing from a F3 or Formula Palmer Audi car. How wrong I was! It's much, much narrower and it looks very strange. It's going to take quite a lot of time to get used to, I reckon!

Frank Bullitt

Thats the F2008K, essentially its just this years car with KERS.

joeperry

Heres this years Williams with the 2009 aero package.

ro_chez

joeperry wrote: »

Heres this years Williams with the 2009 aero package.

Similar to the early 90's rear wing, interesting!
Although, the FIA's technical consultant is reported as saying that he doubts that the rule changes will achieve their target of reducing downforce by half.

http://formula-1.updatesport.com/news/article/1226483358/formula_one/F1gossip/New-rules-may-not-be-enough/view.html

aidan_dunne

ro_chez wrote: »

Similar to the early 90's rear wing, interesting!

That's what I thought they would look like when I first read the regulations but when you see them for real, they look considerably narrower. The angle that picture was taken at doesn't really give you a good indication of how narrow they actually are, it's only when you see them directly head on or from behind that you can see that aspect of the new design properly.

I think these pics from testing a while back give a better impression of how narrow the new rear wings will be:













Of course, at the moment these are all just being stuck onto the existing chassis and, naturally enough, they look "weird" and "just not right" (well, to my eyes at the moment, at least! ). It won't be until we see the complete packages on the completely new 2009 cars (combined with the slick tyres) that we'll be able to judge properly just how "beautiful" or "ugly" the new designs are. Suffice to say, they'll probably take some time to get used to but, like all previous developments, in time they'll become second nature to us all, I'm sure.

Cookie_Monster

Why are they not using the slicks in those testing shots, will the current cars not take them? Or is it one change at a time for safety reason or similar