Have You Seen The New F1 Ferrari!!!!

[23Racer]

:eek: Just saw a photo spread of the new Ferrari F60, buurrrppp, cough, sorry I have a little something in the back of my throat. This car is by far the ugliest race car since the old Formula First class in England in the '80's.

MY GAWD who in their right mind would allow something so freakin' ugly to be the new pinnacle of motorsports. This just convinces me that F1 is going to implode and we will all be watching Grand Am style cars in the future. In fact, it makes the Grand Am Prototypes look down right beeyootiful in comparison.

What is wrong with motorsport? First we had the new ugly IRL cars, then Grand Am Prototype, then Champ Cars, A1 GP and finally the sidewinding new NASCAR Sprint Cup cars. The only really cool top level cars are LeMans Cars and any top flight GT Series from around the world, though I have to admit that the DTM, BTCC and WTCC cars look a bit odd to me. I have more interest in the 2009 Sprints Grid than the F1 grid now.

I honestly have little desire to see 18 - 20 of those butt ugly cars driving around a track. Bring back the technical innovation of the '80's maybe with spec front and rear wings to reduce the avaiable downforce. Personally, I will be focusing on FIA GT, LeMans Europe and ALMS this year and maybe even the new Trans Am series. I would be more interested in the WC Speed series if they weren't too busy "WWF'ing" it up like NASCAR Sprint Cup.

What do you think, has F1 finally jumped the shark?????

Eric Nummelin

[AndrewW]

just curious what you mean by WWF'ing in regards to Speed World Challenge??

[23Racer]

Andrew, I am just referring to the WCVison plans that were discussed at Daytona Testing. In particular, the possible coin flip to invert the grid after qualifying amongst other things. It's just the first step on a slippery slope to "improve the show". Speed WC had nothing wrong with the show, its just the costs have grown higher than the marketing value of the series for a number of competitors.

I think WCVision should be spending their time pumping the hell out of the series this winter and working with Speed TV to improve their tv package rather than trying to improve the show. It's amazing how quiet things are isn't it! The World Challange Series was great until it opened the technical doors with the Caddy and last year you needed to build a $150 - $200,000 car to run in Touring Car (this year maybe $100,000) and spend $20,000 a weekend to run towards the front. It should have said a lot when Mitch finally decided to leave.

Anyways, this is more about how freakin ugly the new F1 cars are, than discussing what is right and wrong with the Speed WC Series.

[Travis]

The narrow wing looks ridiculous, sure, but the rest of the car looks great.

[George]

Here's a link with some pictures. The front wing looks likely to get knocked off quite a bit, should be fun at Monaco.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_gallery_display.php?fes_gal_id=950

[Fast Eddie]

I have to agree. I saw a pic of a BMW Sauber last month and thought it was a joke.

Same wing configuration as the new Ferrari. Mini wing in the rear and something from a combine on the front.

F1 is getting harder to watch and equally harder to take seriously.

[23Racer]

A BIT!!!!!!!!!!! I think at least 2 cars in every first corner, LOL.

What bothers me is that the front wing is so huge, low and broad and the rear wing is narrow, tall and deep. All sense of proportion is missing. The car looks like it was designed by somebody at Hot Wheels or Big Deal Designs. I do like the cleaner main part of the car, but esthetically it just looks wrong.

At least it won't flip over like a prototype.

Eric

[jeffrey]

Are you the same guy's that moth balled the AERO?:confused:

[Dave]

The rear wing really does seem disproportionately narrow, but it's nice to see full slicks on the car.

[George]

Another thing too is the location of the mirrors as seen from the overhead picture of Massa leaving the garage.

The stem is connected to the outer edge of the side pod so just a touch from the wheel of another car could clean that right off there leaving the Ferrari minus a mirror and unable to continue notwithstanding that it might be otherwise undamaged.

As for the wings, yeah they do look disproportional but I guess they are getting the aero that they want for the car within the rules.

[racerguy19]

Hey !!! If the general opinion is that they look so bad, maybe we can sway the viewer to watch a full season of GT Sprints in '09 !!! :D

Ok, ok......so we don't have world wide tv coverage or huge sponsors, or big world renowned name drivers (sorry Nick, you're close!!) or the stands to put people in, but maybe with a little advertising of our series !?!?!:p

.....OK......it's not a perfect plan.....:rolleyes:

Steve
racerguy19

[MazdaMatt]

I don't hate it any more than previous F1 cars... Small wing looks a little silly, but heck, look what i drive...

I do like the "simpler" body. They have a nice smooth teardrop shape instead of a dozen silly wings and sharp angles.

The overhead looks way too phalic, but that's nothing new in motorsports.

[Steven Scala]

The mandated wings are caricatures, but I figure they're an earnest attempt to help passing. Looks like they're trying to give a following car more front downforce by making the leading car's wake more vertically oriented, giving the trailing car cleaner air in the front wing's outboard area, where the flaps are now driver-adjustable on the fly. I bet Bernie was all for it.

Whatever, the whole car would look a bit more organic with compound, full-width wings to condition aero flows around the wheels. But then it wouldn't need seven hundred-something horsepower, and they've gotta spend the money on kers systems, right? Corporate habits die hard, man.

Anyway, with a Renault engine supplier based near ICAR, I can finally root for a home team.

[WannaBeRacer]

The New f1 car's are ugly but it's not their fault. The best looking one I think is the the FW31 williams.

http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=54439&g2_serialNumber=3

[Slowpoke]

Is this to create less air disturbance behind the cars so that drafting, and therefore, passing is easier?

[WannaBeRacer]

Yes along with the adjustable front wing and the "KERS" setup.

[MitS]

I don't really care what they look as long as they work. Even then, aside from disproportionate wings the rest of the car looks better. In the end it's about racing and the last 4 seasons have been a huge improvement over the previous 15.

There's lots of young talented drivers in competitive cars with a chance to podium or win in outright. Every race counts in the championship. If the racing is good it's silly to get lost on what the cars look like. One of the weaknesses of F1 as voted by the fans of the sport has been lack of passing. Aero has been one the huge culprits in that problem and if this fixes it, I'm all for it.

I do share the worries about the front wing and how it will cope with contact. Other than that, I am happy with the changes. I certainly won't miss grooved tires or all the winglets.

F1 has had an excitement about it that had been lost for a long time (unless you were Tifosi) and I hope the new rules allow that excitement to continue.