Ferrari launched their latest single seater to much fanfare at its factory in early February. The new car, designated the F2002 (that took a lot of thought from the marketing department, didn't it) is the newest design to come out of the triumvirate of Brawn, Byrne, and Martinelli.

The car is similar to previous designs in that it follows evolution, rather than revolution. With the winning packages that have come out of Maranello the last several years, why change something that works? Design emphasis has been focused on two areas, lowering the center of gravity and increasing the aerodynamic efficiencies. The former is always a goal of racecar design. Ferrari has demonstrated on a consistent basis that it can develop a package that is under the minimum weight requirements (they add ballast to make up the difference). Ballast can be added in strategic locations to improve the handling (usually on the leading edge of the bottom diffuser) by balancing the car's weight characteristics, but by lowering the center of gravity, cornering speeds can be increased (anyone can hit the loud pedal on a straight). The new design lowers the mounting points of the engine, and the transmission contains more exotic components and is packaged in a smaller unit.

The second area of focus has been on aerodynamics. While a dissertation can be written on efficient aerodynamic designs of F1 cars (and several have been), the main thing to remember is that the car has to be as slippery as possible in the air, yet have enough down-force to be stable. Drag is the enemy of speed, and its wrath increases at the square of the speed (i.e. go two times faster, the resistance is four times greater) and horsepower is top speed. You can only get around 860 reliable horsepower with current technology, within the regulations, therefore the slipperier the better. True, you could make a dart design, but it wouldn't be able to turn. Hence, some drag is needed to make the thing drivable. Remember, a 747-400 only needs 207 mph to take off, and Mercedes has proven that they can make planes out of cars at speeds much less than that. Maybe overcompensating here is a good thing? Ferrari has focused on making a cleaner aero package and the intro car showed some minor elements to clean up the flow around the rear wheels.

It has been suggested that there is a chance that the Scuderia will run the F2001 for part of the season, since it meets the current regulations. The caveat to this is that the new 051 engines are not compatible with the old chassis. Expect to see both chassis at the season opener in Australia. As with all race cars, its not what its capable of, its what it actually achieves.

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Chassis

• Carbon-fibre and honeycomb composite structure
• Ferrari longitudinal gearbox
• Limited-slip differential
• Semiautomatic sequential electronically controlled gearbox
• Number of gears: 7 + reverse
• Ventilated carbon-fibre disc brakes
• Independent suspension, push-rod activated torsion springs front and rear
• Length: 4,495 mm
• Width: 1,796 mm
• Height: 959 mm
• Wheelbase: 3,050 mm
• Front track: 1,470 mm
• Rear track: 1,405 mm
• Weight with water, lubricant and driver: 600 kg
• Wheels (front and rear): 13"

• Type: 051
• Number of cylinders: V 10
• Cylinder block in cast aluminium
• Number of valves: 40
• Pneumatic valve-gear
• Total displacement: 2,997 cc
• Magneti Marelli digital electronic injection
• Magneti Marelli static electronic ignition