Ferrari promise “much more aggressive” 2012 car

2012 F1 season

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Ferrari weren't competitive 'out of the box' in 2011

Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis says the team will take more risks with its 2012 car.

Tombazis said: “A more aggressive approach has come about as the result of the analysis we carried out of the defeats we suffered over the past few years.

“We realised we had been a bit too conservative and had closed our minds to some strands of development. So for next year’s car, we have sanctioned a much more aggressive approach on the aero front, which has required a much closer working relationship with those developing the structure of the car.

“It might make it harder when considering other aspects of the car, but it allows more room for aerodynamic development.

“The other element of the new approach is in how we make use of the wind tunnel: it involves not just developing and optimising what we have, but also introducing to every wind tunnel session some new concepts, which sometimes might not work, but sometimes can produce interesting results.”

Tombazis added: “I think that visually, the new car is fairly different to its predecessor but if it has a wow factor, as our team principal Stefano Domenicali thought, when he first saw the model, then I hope the wow factor will also be evident from the results.

“We have set ourselves ambitious targets, which we intend to maintain and so, on this front, I am quite optimistic.”

Tombazis said the team will use the remaining five races of this season to prepare for next year: “Having accepted for a while now that this year’s championship titles are beyond our grasp, our main effort is aimed at next year.

“The technical rules have not changed that much, with general stability prevailing, apart from the area involving the exhaust system. Therefore there are areas on the 150?é?? Italia that are relevant for next year.

“That means in the remaining races we will be experimenting with this in mind. For example, we could try a new front wing that represents a different approach in terms of how it works. We can therefore try and learn as much as possible right away.

“Clearly, we also hope it will be beneficial for this year’s car too in the races that are left. Even on the exhaust side there are lessons to be learned from what we have done so far, because any in depth study also brings benefits.

“Our rivals were ahead of us in developing this area and that gave them a big advantage. The lessons we have learned from this and other similar situations in the past, always have a benefit for us in the end.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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39 comments on “Ferrari promise “much more aggressive” 2012 car”

  1. It’s nice to see them taking Alonso’s idea for experimentation to heart. They definitely need to be more aggressive for 2012 and I am glad to hear they are moving in that the direction. This and last season have both been fantastic, but a Ferrari that can consistently keep up with RedBull and McLaren would sure spice next year up!

    I’m hoping Mercedes can make a clear step forward too!

    1. I’m hoping to see 5 WDC with similar machinery in terms of ability to claim multiple poles and wins. Having 5 WDC and one of them with a much better car is really unfair to us all as F1 fans. Fernando Alonso deserves another shot with a respectable car.

  2. I still don’t get excited by their comments about being aggressive. For quite some time ferrari seems to be under performing and they are yet to get right with pirelli tyres. At singapore alonso said they may try to exploit tyre degradation of other teams but in the end they are the one who suffered most & prominently on softest tyre available. With regulations not being changed much, they have steep mountain to climb just to catch current redbull and not to forget the progress redbull may make for next year. Best thing is wait until first race in next year to see results of this agressiveness.

    1. I believe their problem with the Pirelli tyres was exagerated by they conservative (that word could be used to describe the whole team!) choice of suspension layout. Honestly, I can’t see them sticking the push-rod suspension for 2012.

      1. Williams went for “Aggressive” rear suspension this season and look where that got them. It took ferrari a few years to get everything right in the MSC years and it will be the same with their new engineering team. I for one will not be expecting much until 2013

        1. I think Tomabzis will take everything out of himself to make a winning car for 2012. With Costa gone, he’s the only scapegoat reamining. If he comes again with his homework not done, he’ll be receiving some fish.

          1. That’s slightly forgetting Pat Fry, is it not?

          2. Nah, Pat Fry is still “fresh” he still can afford a couple of seasons of screwing up. Considering Ferrari’s politics in recent years, the last men standing would be Massa and Domenicali.

  3. What is Pat Fry’s role in this aggresive vision? They seem to be focussing more on aero development than the chasis given their challenges with the tyre degradation.

    1. I understand this as going a bit like Neweys approach, where Aero is the first consideration and the chassis has to fit into that aero concept.

  4. sorry to be so pessimistic, but havent ferrari said this the past two seasons in a row? id love them to make a fast car as a three-way championship fight (assuming macca and red bull make great cars) would be fantastic. However, i just cant see it happening. I hope the car is brilliant, plainly for the sake of a good championship next year!

    1. I’m 100% sure they said so at the start of this year/when designing this year’s car. Typical PR if you ask me, but they certainly have to come up with something to catch Red Bull (and McLaren).

      1. definitely

    2. Yes, it was Ferrari, with Williams also saying the same. I think Mercedes and Renault said so as well, although Renault really did something quite different

    3. This year’s Ferrari was essentially just a development of last year’s car though. It’s not like for the past few years Ferrari have pioneered some weird aerodynamic idea that say, RBR, Mclaren or even Renault have done.

      1. But they kept saying there were going to be new components that would transform the car until about the first race when it turned out those components might be there, but that they wouldn’t in fact change the car from the rather conservative base they started from, just tweak it.

        Still, as Bas says, Williams has had years of “clean-room” aggressive designs now, and it never helped them progress. This year it might have done something, but they had a lot of issues with getting the package sorted before being able to actually evaluate the aero, or so it seems.

        That’s the problem if you do something new.

        Same thing for Mercedes. And even Renault, who earlier in the season seemed to be on to something with their FFE, but now seem to have too little potential for development with it.

        At the same time McLaren is pushed by its drivers to please evolve the current concept so they don’t have to again go for a new thing they have to figure out, and Red Bull have been refining a concept for three years now.

        Clearly, you need a solid basis for that multi-year evolution to greatness, so if you don’t have it, starting fresh gives changes muddling about with a solid but sub-par package can’t.

        However, even with great ideas, and a good grasp on how to debug them and their effects on the rest of the car or their fragility, it takes luck and effort to find that basis to develop from, and to have enough pace and reliability early on with it to be able to keep it going until it becomes a superior package.

        Ferrari should have the resources. What’s worrying is that they told us last year that this was what they were going to do for 2011. And they couldn’t do it somehow.

  5. They should hire someone who’s sole job for the remainder of the year is to make aero parts, even illegal ones, and run them during FP1 just to throw off the competition.

    I’m imagining a second front wing mounted above the usual one, or a smaller rear wing mounted on the engine cover.
    or perhaps something a little more subtle but equally questionable.

    It’d never happen though…
    one can dream can’t he??

    1. How about side pods that reflect what once was ground effects…except place them over a flat plane( like a full width legality plank) and connect them vertically by a panel that would keep side pod and flat bottom in concert with each other.

      The sidepod would create the venturi effect that once sucked the cars to the track in the 70’s. The key to this working is getting balance right and could be adjusted with some small front canards and a small rear wing to balance the areo to maximize the overall downforce.

      Benefits will be in cornering speeds and also could offset the loss of downforce from smaller wings. It worked once and changed the face of racing worldwide.

      The basic difference would be that instead of the car using the ground to suck to , it will make the car suck to itself therefore creating adhesion while negating overall drag where not needed at certain parts of a lap.

      1. Wow, you’ve obviously put a lot more thought into it than I have (with my silly wing ideas).
        It sounds like you’re describing something similar to a double floor as featured on the F92A or more recently on the Toro Rosso?

  6. I´m sure Ferrari will try their best, but they will only find if their project is innovative or not when they put it on track along side Red Bull’s and McLaren’s cars.

    Until then, those kind of statament is only PR to please and manage the Tifosi’s patient.

    1. Well, even if it is a sitting duck, it might still be an innovative duck I suppose. But yes, that’s the crux: it only helps if it works. And being innovative means you have less tested results to work from.

  7. The only trouble is, with the titles effectively wrapped up, Red Bull can concentrate on 2012 too ….

    1. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
      4th October 2011, 22:54

      I imagine Red Bull have been focusing on 2012 for a number of races now

      1. They can come back stronger than competition next year, or not. We will have to wait.

  8. I really hope Tombazis telling the truth when he said Domenicali was impressed with the looks of the car. When Ferrari unveiled the F10, it looked more like a stretched version of the late-2009 spec F60 than a new car, and there wasn’t anything surprising about the 150º when they released it too. But I’m hopeful for a change, since they revamped their technical team a bit.

    I don’t support Ferrari, but God knows how happy I was when Vettel won the title last year after such a closely fought season. While I’m also happy he will win again this year, such an “comfortable” title is not nearly as exciting as it was in 2010. So hopefully Ferrari will do a car worthy of their name, and with McLaren and Mercedes (why not?) on the mix too, 2012 shall be a season with the epic championship fight of 2010 plus the amazing racing quality of 2011.

    So please Ferrari, don’t let me down!

  9. maybe it won’t be a winning car, like the radical McLaren of this year, maybe it will be even a disappointing car, but i like this new approach. Newey is great but he isn’t invincible, a good Ferrari in 2012 can be a bridge for a great Ferrari in 2013.

  10. I’m guessing it looks like a RedBull then

    1. Clearly they’ve been checking out the videos on YouTube of Mark Webber’s RB7 in Monza ;)

  11. its certainly going to be interesting to see how teams will feed the difuser now exhaust gasses have been banned

    somehow I fear nuway will again have the upper-hand here

  12. This reminds me of Williams “aggressive”

    1. Or Renault “aggresive”

    2. Me too. I’d like to see some defensive developments one of these days!!

  13. I think Pat Fry is just the “unifying” guy as TD. It looks like Niko is doing concept work on the various concept (i.e. what kind of concept is happening).

    I hope it comes out different compared to Pat Fry’s last car designed on an aggressive approach. He was responsible for the MP4-24 if I remember correctly

  14. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    5th October 2011, 0:21

    I have heard that story many times, not only coming from Ferrari but even from Virgin and HRT… they always plan a really aggressive car, but are the other teams going to take a nap? no way, and this spirit is something good to hear but it’s impossible to underestimate the progress small teams can manage, sometimes surprisingly. And about the other big teams as Mercedes, Mc Laren and obviously Red Bull, take for granted they will be aggressive from the very beginning

  15. Talk is cheap. Until they can at least match Red Bull’s pace at the Australian Grand Prix next year, these are just empty words.

  16. From this day forward, teams should be banned from using the word “aggressive” to describe their car design. It’s the new “for sure”. McLaren are the only team to have actually made good on the promise of an aggressive design with the MP4-26, and they never actually used the word “aggressive” to describe it.

    1. That’s well said. There are two problems with the “aggressive”. One is that it suggest a radical change, which within the rules of F1 aren’t always easy, and may be very hard to spot and evaluate for the eye of the viewer, so it will almost always lead to disappointment with the effort.

      The other is that aggressive doesn’t mean “well working, reliable and fast”, which is the combination that is needed to make it work, see the Red Bull early 2010 season: it was a great car, but without reliability it seemed beatable.

      Of course, teams seem to have to say these things to appease fans and management/investors, but that makes it even worse for the fans.

  17. Many teams often say their design is aggressive – but how many times does it show an improvent on the previous year? I hope this is one of the few cases.

  18. sid_prasher (@)
    5th October 2011, 20:47

    …what matters more is whether its a race winning car.

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