Formula 1 has changed and is no longer what it used to be. Screaming 3.0-liter V10s and V12s made way for relatively tamer 2.4-liter V8 units which were then ditched in favour of less fuel-consuming and more environment-friendly 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 hybrid mills from the 2014 season. Yes, you just read the phrases Formula 1, less fuel-consuming and hybrid in the same statement. While this was happening in the powertrain department, evolving regulations on aerodynamics and safety resulted in cars that looked weird, to put it mildly.
Understandably, all this hasn't gone down well with hardcore F1 fanatics. Not only are circuits struggling to attract spectators to grands prix, the television viewership in Formula 1’s traditional strongholds is on a steady decline too. With think tanks in Formula 1 looking at ways and means of making the sport a better spectacle, the folks at Scuderia Ferrari might have just beat them all and come up with the best way of doing that.
In an attempt to reach out to the sport’s audience and fans, Ferrari released images of a radical new concept car that represents the fabled Italian marque’s vision of a Formula 1 car of the future. And we’re completely floored. Sporting a two-tier nose cone, a matching front wing with multiple air ducts, beefier side pods and a massive central exhaust, Ferrari’s concept might appear loud for some but something like this is what Formula 1 badly needs right now, we think. Ignoring the practicality and usage aspects, there are some really cool touches like the helmet integrated in the bodywork, tyre huggers and those Italian stripes on the nose cone.
"Our challenge was to create something that was - to put it short - better looking," read a statement on Ferrari’s website where these images were posted. Commenting on his team’s creation, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said, "By 2017, I too would like to see cars that win over the fans, with cars that they can get closer to and that are aesthetically more appealing, maybe even producing a noise that gets your hair standing on end, like that produced by a heavy metal band." Against those expectations, we have to admit that this is a job extremley well done.
May we place a request to the sport's governing body to approve cars like these to grace the race circuits please? Thanks Ferrari, for a job well executed. Now, if they come up with a similarly stellar job and give Kimi and Vettel machines capable of fighting it out at the front, the 2015 season would end up a gripping affair. Forza Ferrari!
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