Written by:
Kevin Krefting
01/05/2008
Maranello, Italy
The F2008 will have the responsibility of defending Ferrari's driver's and constructor's crowns. (Ferrari photo)
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Ferrari revealed on Sunday its new car for the upcoming season, the F2008. The machine that will be shared by 2007 champ Kimi Raikkonen and teammate Felipe Massa has been designed with the new '08 regulations in mind, as no driver aids – including traction control – will be allowed this season. As a result, according to Ferrari, the new car is heavier than its predecessor.
Penned by Aldo Costa, the F2008 will have its first track session at Ferrari's private Fiorano track on Monday. Ferrari is the first team to publicly display its car for the 2008 season.Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa says the F2008 will be very different when it begins racing in Australia this year.
The Maranello squad unveiled its new challenger in a low-key ceremony, where photographers were banned, but Costa said the car will change significantly before the first race in March.
"We worked hard on aerodynamics," said Costa during the launch. "From an aerodynamics point of view the car is completely different except for those elements that at this debut are temporarily identical to the old car's.
"But the car will go through an evolution and so it will go to the first race with every aerodynamic surfaces redone.
"The front and rear wings will be new, while at this debut they are identical to the previous car. The chassis and the sidepods are slimmer. We've worked on every aspect of the car to improve its efficiency.
"We've also worked on solving problems we had on certain circuits, like Monte Carlo, Hungary, Canada. We worked on certain aerodynamics aspects that could help us on those particular circuits."
The car will make its track debut tomorrow at Fiorano, before the team begin its development program before the Melbourne race on March 16.
Costa said the team have worked hard to adapt the car to the new regulations, which ban the use of driving aids.
"A lot of work has been done on the aspects regarding electronics," he added. "From this year we have a single ECU from MES, which forced us, who were used to Magneti Marelli, to review the electronic layout of the car, and to get used to the lack of driver aids.
"Lots of work was done on the gearbox. As you know it will have to last for four races. The work has been scheduled around that, with lots of testing on the bench and on the track. So the dimensions of the insides of the gearbox have been changed to increase the life of its components.
"There was work done on the suspensions. It's not visible, but it aims to improve the behavior of the car on the circuits that saw us having some difficulties last year.
"Finally, there are the details on various systems. Every aspect of the car, including its components, was analyzed and developed.
"The car is slightly shorter than last year. Last year we increased the wheelbase quite sizeably, while this year the general length of the car has remained substantially the same except for a small adjustment we've done for certain specific reasons. But nothing major."
