For the aesthetes among us, it’s not looking good.

 The FIA’s 2012 technical regs appear to have led most teams down the stepped-nose path, with McLaren being the only exception to date.

Ferrari cancelled the live action launch scheduled for this morning thanks to snow in Maranello. Instead, the F2012 was unveiled online. The feedback was instant, and it wasn’t very positive, with many tifosi calling the car the ugliest in the team’s history.

In the end, however, cars that win championships always look beautiful, and that’s what the Scuderia are aiming for. The F2012 marks the start of a new philosophy for Ferrari, chief designer Nikolas Tombazis said.

“At the start of the design phase of this car we decided to apply much more aggressive targets and we had as a principal objective to recover our aerodynamic deficit compared to our main competitors,” he explained. “We have established – and I think it's fairly clear – that we were down on aerodynamic performance compared to our opponents so we've had to work quite hard to recover that.

“It is fairly clear that in the previous years we have been disappointing in our results and therefore we decided to analyse the reasons of that and to change fundamentally the philosophy we apply in the project. So having done this analysis we also realised that we were probably a bit too conservative in some areas of the car and we decided to follow a much more aggressive approach for this year. I think you can see the result of this aggression when you look at the car; we also hope that it will be visible at the track.”

While the technical specifications released by Ferrari have been copied in full below, they do not tell the full story. A lot of the work done to the F2012 has been done under the skin, with the team saying that “practically every area of the car has been fundamentally revised”.

The official launch press release explains the changes in detail: “Practically every area of the car has been fundamentally revised, starting with the suspension layout: both the front and rear feature pull-rods, aimed at favouring aerodynamic performance and lowering the centre of gravity. The front wing is derived from the one introduced on the 150º Italia in the final part of its racing life and has been evolved from there. ... The sides have been redesigned, through modifications to the side impact structures, the repositioning of the radiators and revisions to all aerodynamic elements. The lower part of the rear of the car is much narrower and more tapered, a feature achieved partly through a new gearbox casing and a relocation of some mechanical components. ... The rear wing is conceptually similar to the one used in 2011, but every detail of it has been revised and it is now more efficient. ... The front and rear air intakes for the brakes have been redesigned and work was carried out in collaboration with Brembo to optimise the braking system.”

As is typically the case with launch cars, the F2012 is still very much a work in progress.

“This car is still destined to change quite a lot before the first race,” Tombazis said. “We have already been working in the wind tunnel and the technical office on aerodynamic upgrades for the car, but we also have some very important experiments we want to carry out in the first tests so that we can then finalise the first race configuration.”

F2012 technical specs

Chassis

Carbon-fibre and honeycomb composite structure
Gearbox: Ferrari longitudinal gearbox
Differential: Limited-slip differential
Command: Semiautomatic sequential electronically controlled gearbox – quick shift
Number of gears: 7 +Reverse
Brakes: Brembo ventilated carbon-fibre disc brakes
Suspension: Independent suspension, pull-rod activated torsion springs front and rear
Weight with water, lubricant and driver: 640 kg
OZ Wheels (front and rear): 13"

Engine

Type: 056
Number of cylinders: 8
Cylinder block in sand cast aluminium: V 90°
Number of valves: 32
Pneumatic distribution
Total displacement: 2398 cm3
Piston bore: 98 mm
Weight: >95 kg
Electronic injection and ignition
Fuel: Shell V-Power
Lubricant: Shell Helix Ultra  Kate Walker

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