F1: Q&A With Aldo Costa - The Man Behind Ferrari F150

Formula 1

F1: Q&A With Aldo Costa - The Man Behind Ferrari F150

Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa discusses the team's new car for 2011...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted January 28, 2011 Balen (BEL)

Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa says it will be hard to create the Renault-like front exhaust system. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa is the man with ultimate responsibility for the new Ferrari F150, and as such has had to deal with some intriguing challenges in terms of the new tires, new aero rules, and the return of KERS.

Here’s what he has to say about the new car.

Q: There are many changes regarding the regulations for 2011. Which are the ones with the major impact on the F150 project?
The major aspects with the most impact on the project were connected to the aerodynamic development. The car will change a lot. The double diffuser, the F-duct, is gone. The driver can’t change the car’s aerodynamic setup anymore. The underbody won’t have any ‘holes’ in the central part anymore. This is a fundamental change. The rear wing will be movable, so that the driver can overtake the car in front of him and use it in the qualifying according to his needs. The KERS is back. Although we’ve improved its size, it’s still quite big. Therefore, the technicians had to redesign the car’s layout. There are also new safety rules. We participated in the changes the Federation made to improve safety on the track, which is always extremely important.

Q: Would you say that this car is more of an evolution or a revolution compared to last year’s single-seater?
Due to the new rules, the car should be a proper cut compared to the previous one, with new concepts and lines of development. As far as the looks are concerned, the rules keep them quite unaltered. The cars look like the ones from last year, but from a technical point of view they will be really different.

Q: How will the F150 as we see her here today evolve over the next weeks?
The car’s evolution has been planned with two big stages: One during the winter tests, where we will mainly develop the area of the mechanics, which means that the car’s structure, the chassis, the gearbox and the suspension will remain the same for the first couple of races. The aerodynamics is simplified and temporary for the first tests, waiting for the real aerodynamic development for the first race.

Q: According to you, which were the most demanding challenges regarding this project?
Starting from scratch with the car’s rear, because the double diffuser and the F-duct are gone and there have been some clarifications regarding the car’s underbody, these were the main challenges and why we had to start from scratch rethinking the whole project.

Q: This year there is a new provider regarding the tires. To what extent are the Pirelli tires still a question mark?
The project and the evolution of these tires happened in a very short time frame: Pirelli had only a couple of months to develop the tires. I think they’ve done some really good work, but there’s still a lot to do. We have to test several compounds, while we are already in a good and reliable condition as far as the tires’ construction is concerned. There’s still a lot to do and it’s a very important issue. We have to use the winter tests as good as we can to set up the Pirelli tires.

A model of the new Ferrari F150. (Photo: Ferrari)

Q: How do you get ready for the debut on the track?
The structure and the method have progressively changed over the last years at Ferrari. We were used to many miles on the track. But now we only have four days in February. There is no time to resolve fundamental problems as far as the car’s reliability is concerned. Therefore, this work has to be done on the test stand. That’s why at the moment we’re testing the car’s substructure on the test stand, checking its functionality and weariness, so that we can go on the track with a reliable car.

Adam Cooper notched up his 26th season as a racing journalist in 2010. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’10. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter.