Ferrari's 60th Formula 1 creation, the F14 T – which was named formally yesterday following an public online poll -, will be driven by Fernando Alonso and Scuderia returnee Kimi Raikkonen, who comes back on board in place of Williams-bound Felipe Massa.
A car that began as a concept more than two years ago, the F14 T is the latest chassis to be revealed based around a raft of rule changes being introduced for 2014, not least the much anticipated changes to front-end designs.
Indeed, with McLaren and Lotus creating plenty of discussion with different designs, Ferrari has adopted another alternative look, with a wider and flatter interpretation than McLaren's thin, elongated nose and Lotus's dual-pronged nose.
Touching on the new-look, Ferrari says the design presented designers with a real challenge to repackage the front suspension into a much lower monocoque.
“The front wing is regulated to be 75mm narrower per side in order to make it less vulnerable to collisions with other cars and with the barriers,” read a launch statement. “This change, perhaps one of the less noticeable visual differences to the 2013 cars, has a profound effect on the aerodynamics of the vehicle.
“The front wings used since 2009 have all featured elaborate measures to encourage the wake of the front wing endplates to pass around the outside of the front tyres in order to maximize the downforce on the car. An innocent change of just 75mm to the position of the wing tip has required us to reinvent completely the front wing aerodynamics for 2014.”
In addition, the 2014 rear wing shares nothing with the previous year owing to three rule changes requiring a much larger stroke DRS, a much smaller overall rear wing depth and removal of the beam wing.
Ferrari heads into the 2014 F1 season determined to reclaim a first Formula 1 World Championship title since 2007. On that occasion Raikkonen was crowned champion and the Finn has been charged with ending Ferrari's title drought once more following his highly publicised switch from Lotus.
Despite rumours of ructions between himself and management – partly due to Raikkonen's arrival as a threat to his No.1 superiority in the team -, Alonso remains on board for a fifth consecutive season with an eye on securing his third career F1 title, but a first in 'red', having finished runner-up to Sebastian Vettel in three of the last four seasons. The F14 T will get its first public test outing at Jerez next week on 28th January.
Reference :
Crash.net
Ferrari.com
gpupdate
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