Ferrari launch their 2015 car; the SF15-T

Yesterday morning, the Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team launched their 2015 car; the SF15-T via an online launch from their factory in Maranello.

The car is a significant one for Formula One’s oldest and most prestigious team as it marks the start of a new era under new management as well as coinciding with the arrival of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

The SF15-T is the first Ferrari to be fully designed under technical director James Allison and is also the first to be launched by under the new management of Maurizio Arrivabene as team principal and Sergio Marchionne as president.

Both the car and the power unit will need to be a dramatic step forward if the Italian team is to close the gap to Mercedes at the front of the field, but the car looks certainly different to the 2014 with a new longer nose to conform to new regulations and tighter bodywork towards the rear.

In an interview with the media yesterday, Ferrari's Technical Director James Allison said the following about the differences between the 2014 and 2015 car as follows:-

'The back of the car is something which is noticeably different to the 2014 car because we’ve been successful in pulling the bodywork much tighter to all the stuff underneath the skin. That’s been done through a lot of work not only in the wind tunnel but also in the design part of the company to find radiator designs that were fundamentally more efficient.
'So for every square centimetre of radiator we are able to extract more cooling this year than last and able to close the car down at the back as a consequence.'

My first thoughts on the Ferrari SF15-T was just as Allison has described (see picture above) which was that the back end of the car is different to the 2014 and looks more polished and refined in order to get the best downforce levels possible. As Allison has stated in his interview yesterday, you can tell that a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes on the car in the hope of having a more competitive season this year than last year.

However, one area that remains the same is Ferrari’s pull-rod front suspension, which is at odds with the rest of the field that (of the cars launched so far) run push-rod. It is a feature that is often picked up on in the media, but further on in his interview, Allison has said that changing to push-rod suspension would not have provided any significant advantage and would have cost aero performance. Allison added the following:-

'Every year you set out which areas of the car you should put your effort into to try to improve them. These are decisions that need to be taken quite carefully because when you make a choice of working on one part of the car – because you don’t have infinite resources – you are effectively making a choice not to work on another part. When you decide what to work on you have to pick quite carefully the areas that are going to give maximum return for your effort.

'Push-rod or pull-rod on the front has pros and cons either side. A pull-rod is probably harder to get light and stiff, but it’s probably a bit easier to get aerodynamic performance from, so it’s swings and roundabouts. It’s an area of the car that wasn’t felt to be a problem on last year’s car and therefore wasn’t an area that merited investment of effort this time round on the SF15-T.'

I would have to agree with Allison here. Every season every team on the grid have areas to focus on in order to develop and learn from last season to translate onto their new car for the season ahead and it is clear that this has been undergoing at Ferrari under his guidance, leadership and most importantly his experience in the sport.

As Allison points out, every team has limited investment and capital to give to developing and improving the car within a season and Allison has to weigh up every possible avenue that the team could go down with the car and decide which one will benefit them most. And it is clear for all to see that Allison choosing the push-rod suspension is the best option for the Ferrari team even though he understands that there are benefits and disadvantages with the suspension but has made the best calculated risk possible.

In his own interview with the media yesterday, Ferrari president Arrivabene said he could not yet comment on the performance of the car but believes it is at least “really sexy”. Arrivabene stated the following:-

'Enzo Ferrari said a long time ago that the best car is the winning car. Last year we had an ugly car and it was a non-winning car on top of this. I like the car of this year in terms of aesthetics, I don’t know about performance, but it’s really sexy.'

Even though Arrivabene has used Enzo Ferrari's hypothesis on how to produce a winning car in his interview in his example in his interview yesterday, it is clear that even though he feels that they have an appealing car this year, that doesn't necessarily bring performance on the car and Arrivabene knows that there will be a lot of hard work ahead to ensure that this is the case this season.

Further on in his interview, Arrivabene has already set two wins at the team’s target for 2015 and admits that dreaming of championship success would be setting the bar too high at this stage in the team’s comeback. Arrivabene added the following:-

'I’m just realistic. Nobody has the magic to change things when things are unchangeable. The car was ready actually in December this year and we applied certain modifications that in our opinion are quite interesting. With that I don’t want to say we are going to win the world championship, but for sure we are committed to win at least two races.'

In my opinion, it is good news that the SF15-T was ready in December as this gives the team a little bit more time to develop and improve the car in preparation for the first pre-season test at Jerez. It is clear that Arrivabene is being realistic in his objectives for this season and understand that it will be a journey for the team if they manage to win the two races that he would like them to and would also signal their arrival back to the front of the grid once again.

Overall, it is clear that Ferrari believe that there are in the best possible position to get back to the front of the grid once again this season. As well as the new management in place at the team, Ferrari has changed their driver line up for this season by signing Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull to partner alongside Kimi Raikkonen which prove very handy with both drivers have a vast range of experience in Formula One and their feedback to improving the car over the season will be vital.

But Ferrari also hope that their 2015 power unit is significantly better than the previous season. They hope to achieve this by taking a comprehensive overhaul of the engine that will close the gap to their rivals Mercedes and see them at the front of the grid challenging for victories once again.

Sebastian Vettel is due to give the SF15-T it's official debut at the first pre-season test at Jerez on Sunday and the spotlight will be firmly upon Vettel and Ferrari to see how they perform on the track and also if the car is likely to be competitive this season.

For me, 2015 is an important year for Ferrari and there are no excuses left for the team if they fail to deliver this season. They have the management structure, the personnel behind the factory that are capable of delivering a competitive car and also a strong and experienced driver line up and for me they have to simply have to deliver by any means necessary and show in 2015 that they are at least making steps to getting back to the front of the grid where they want and need to be.

Sarah Jones