Ferrari 2012 car set to be ‘much more aggressive’

Ferrari’s chief designer Nikolas Tombazis has said a “much more aggressive approach” has been taken in the design of the 2012 Ferrari, in the hope of starting the racing season on a strong note.

“I hope the results will speak for themselves when we launch the car and more importantly, as we tackle the first few races on the calendar,” Tombazis said on the official Ferrari website.

Despite delivering promising pre-season testing, Ferrari has suffered a disappointing racing season, struggling to match Red Bull and at times McLaren with the 150th Italia.

The team is now reportedly fully focussed on its 2012 Ferrari, with the new car already in production.

“A more aggressive approach has come about as the result of the analysis we carried out of the defeats we suffered over the past few years,” Tombazis continued.

“We realised we had been a bit too conservative and had closed our minds to some strands of development. So for next year’s car, we have sanctioned a much more aggressive approach on the aero front, which has required a much closer working relationship with those developing the structure of the car.

“It might make it harder when considering other aspects of the car, but it allows more room for aerodynamic development. The other element of the new approach is in how we make use of the wind tunnel: it involves not just developing and optimising what we have, but also introducing to every wind tunnel session some new concepts, which sometimes might not work, but sometimes can produce interesting results.”

Tombazis also said Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali had been impressed with the design of the new car and its “wow factor”.

“I think that visually, the new car is fairly different to its predecessor but if it has a wow factor, as our team principal Stefano Domenicali thought when he first saw the model, then I hope the wow factor will also be evident from the results,” Tombazis said.

“We have set ourselves ambitious targets, which we intend to maintain and so, on this front, I am quite optimistic.”