The team’s 2020 6th-place finish won’t do.
MARANELLO, Italy—The last team to launch their challenger for the 2021 Formula 1 season, Ferrari debuted its new car, the SF21, on Wednesday morning. The team hopes to improve on a disappointing season last year when The Prancing Horse finished sixth in the Constructor’s Championship.
One of the troubles from last season was the engine. However, this season, there are reports that the engine has greatly improved, mainly on the straights where Ferrari had so much trouble in their battle against Mercedes and Red Bull.
Ferrari team Principal Mattia Binotto believes that the new regulations will give the team a better chance of improving their results. “The car was born out of last year’s car due to the new regulation,” he said. “So, it was partially frozen, but we tried to improve it in all areas wherever it was possible. The aerodynamics were revised, and it has a completely new power unit. Its livery has also changed. The posterior is a burgundy color, similar to the very first Ferrari racing car, the 125S. It is the same color we used last year at Mugello to celebrate our 1000th Grand Prix.
Mattia Binotto: This year is going to be full of challenges. Visually we’ve drawn on our history, but we’re also looking towards the future, which will always be defined by Ferrari red.
Enrico Cardile, head of Ferrari’s chassis department, had more to say about how he believes the car will be more competitive in 2021. “We chose the posterior, creating a new transmission and new suspension,” Cardile asserted. “This, along with the work done by our power unit engineers, gave us a much more tapered rear end compared to the SF1000. We also went over the cooling system. We increased the authority of the central radiator and designed a more down-washing bodywork. Aerodynamics was one of the areas impacted by the changed regulations, intended to reduce the capacity of developing vertical downforce, making sure the tires remain intact. This is why, when we started working on the car’s aerodynamics, we gave ourselves two objectives: on the one hand, increasing the aerodynamic charge lost due to the regulations, and on the other reducing drag.”
Charles Leclerc returns for another season with the Scuderia. The Monegasque has a new teammate, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who comes over from McLaren and replaces Sebastian Vettel.
One of Ferrari’s car’s most controversial things is the team’s contract with the Philip Morris (tobacco company), which the team has disguised since the products’ ban back in 2009. The Missionwinnow sponsor, which has been around since 2018, will remain on the car for the rest of the season.
Like all other F1 teams, Ferrari will have its first and only pre-season test in Bahrain later this week.
