This is the race car that Scuderia Ferrari hopes to win this season’s Formula 1 drivers’ championship following a launch on the F14 T.
The name was selected following a fans campaign. Over a million votes were cast in naming the Ferrari but the team will be relying on more than fan power if they’re to make a strong impression, particularly early on in the season.
The Maranello-based team’s 2014 challenger features a different nose design to the other cars revealed so far, with a much flatter concept.
Ferrari has retained its pullrod front suspension concept in the new design.
The T14 T is the first that will have been influenced by incoming Ferrari technical chief James Allison, who arrived late last year following his switch from Lotus.
Ferrari is hoping that the change in regulations this year, with the arrival of 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, will help it finally deliver the world championship that has eluded it in recent years.
Last season proved a disappointment when, after starting the season with a competitive car, it failed to maintain a good enough development rate during the campaign.
As well as the all-new racer for this season, Ferrari has welcomed back Kimi Raikkonen who replaces the Williams-bound Felipe Massa.
It will be fascinating to see how the two champions – Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen – will work together to drive the Scuderia back to championship success.
Official website to the Ferrari F14 T:
http://f14t.ferrari.com/en/
http://f14t.ferrari.com/en/#extra
https://twitter.com/InsideFerrari
http://www.youtube.com/user/ferrariworld
News stories on the F14 T:
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12474/9132771/ferrari-revealed-their-latest-f1-car-the-f14-t-at-their-maranello-base-on-saturday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25858641
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/1/15415.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/10596850/Ferrari-launch-2014-Formula-One-car-as-Fernando-Alonso-bids-to-emulate-Michael-Schumacher.html
Reliability will be “fundamental” to winning the Formula 1 world championship in 2014, according to Ferrari technical director James Allison.
“If I had to choose a thing that was likely to be the dominant factor for the season, I would choose neither the level of power nor the aerodynamic development,” said Allison.
“I would say this year reliability is going to be absolutely fundamental.”
As well as allowing teams to score consistently, a reliable car will also be crucial to providing a platform for development, particularly with only 12 days of pre-season testing available.
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali is confident that the team can improve its car during the season even though this has been a weakness in recent times.
“The season will be long, therefore it is important to start with a very reliable car at the beginning and keep having the development on the running side that was not there last year,” said Domenicali.
“I am expecting the first days of testing to be very challenging for everyone.
“There are a lot of things to be tested, a lot of things to be checked.”
Domenicali added that the major rules change for 2014 offers Ferrari an opportunity to turn around its recent underachievement.
Ferrari last won the drivers’ championship in 2007 and the constructors’ championship a year later, but despite near misses for Fernando Alonso in 2010 and 2012 has not triumphed since.
“The technical challenge is, as far as I can remember, the biggest one that we have seen in the last decade of F1,” said Domenciali.
“There is the opportunity to make sure that this challenge will be taken in the right way by our group of engineers.
“We have a totally new powertrain and a set of new regulations that are very interesting, but has to be really looked carefully at in depth to make sure that we take the opportunity to improve our level of performance.”
Source: Autosport.com