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[sagi58]

Allison: "The SF15-T is taking shape"
An exclusive glimpse of the Scuderia Ferrari staff at work on the SF15-T.

[sagi58]

Todt backs Ferrari to bounce back

Wednesday 28 January at 07:35 : Jan.28 (GMM) FIA president Jean Todt has backed his former team, Ferrari, to bounce back in formula one.

Now in charge of the sport's governing body, 68-year-old Frenchman Todt oversaw Ferrari's revival from the slump of the mid-90s to the dizzying heights of the Michael Schumacher era.

Today, Ferrari is in another period of turmoil and slump, but as he attended this week the 110-year anniversary of Italy's automobile club Aci, Todt backed the Maranello marque to bounce back.

Quoted by Corriere dello Sport, he said Ferrari is a "mythical brand, prestigious (and) part of the history of motor racing in Italy and the world".

So when asked if Ferrari will win again soon, Todt answered: "I hope so and I'm cheering for it."

He said Sergio Marchionne, having replaced Ferrari's long-time president Luca di Montezemolo, is "a great leader and has proved it" by reviving Fiat and Chrysler.

Fiat chairman John Elkann, meanwhile, singled out Todt as a reference for Ferrari, as the Maranello team is "working hard to bring Ferrari back to where Jean Todt left us".

[sagi58]

Ferrari's 2015 F1 engine gains tipped to improve grand prix pace

Ferrari believes there will be a better balance between its Formula 1 qualifying and race performance in 2015 due the major design overhaul for the SF15-T.

Comprehensive engine changes have featured in Ferrari's winter efforts, and technical director James Allison believes a big step forward will be that its race form will no longer be compromised by its power unit being unable to recover as much energy as its rivals.

"We had a number of issues with last year's engine and power unit," explained Allison.

"Early on in the season the power delivery was not particularly sophisticated and quite tough for the drivers to get the type of throttle response that they wanted.

"It was improved a lot during the season and we take that a step further for the SF15-T.

"A definite weakness of last year's car was that the amount of electrical energy that we were able to recover from the turbo was not really good enough for producing competitive power levels during the race.

"It was one of the reasons Ferrari's qualifying performance was relatively stronger than race performance last year.

"We have tried to change the architecture of the engine to make it a better compromise between qualifying and racing performance."

The FIA agreed earlier this month that development tokens could be used at any point over the campaign, rather than all pre-season, and Allison thinks this will help too...

...IMPROVED COOLING AND AERO

After calling the pace difference between Ferrari and Mercedes "unacceptably large", Allison says a lot of effort has also gone into aerodynamics.

The rear of the car is much more tightly packaged, and there has been considerable work on improving cooling efficiency.

"The back of the car is something that is noticeably different to the 2014 car, where we have been successful in pulling the bodywork much tighter to everything under the skin," he said.

"That has been done through a lot of work, not just in the windtunnel, but also in the design part of the company to try to find radiator designs that were fundamentally more efficient.

"So for every square centimetre of radiator, we were able to extract more cooling than last year and therefore able to close the car down at the back as a consequence."

[sagi58]

Ferrari's 2015 F1 engine gains tipped to improve grand prix pace

Altogether...

[Jabberwocky]

No doubt Ferrari will have improved. However how relative will it be to all the other teams?
I wonder if the MGU H will still be the shunt for the power harvesting. Or was that the issue they had with harvesting

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

[LiamCatterson]

I hope to see a big leap. We need to come back...

[sagi58]

No doubt Ferrari will have improved. However how relative will it be to all the other teams?
I wonder if the MGU H will still be the shunt for the power harvesting. Or was that the issue they had with harvesting

I can't pretend to understand the mechanics of it; but, I did find this on James Allen's site:

Ferrari launches 2015 F1 car seeking to close the “unacceptably large gap” to Mercedes

...The key will be the power unit, which lagged well behind the class leading unit last season. Towards the end of the year, with the failure in Monza, they were running reduced power on Alonso’s final engine in preference to taking the penalty for a new unit, as Sebastian Vettel did in Austin. This year with only four engines to last the 20 race season, the emphasis will be even more on reliability.

“This (the Power unit) has been a focus of high effort to improve,” said Allison. “Early last season the power delivery wasn’t particularly sophisticated and it was tough for the driver to get the type of throttle response they wanted. It improved a lot in the season and we take that a step further (on this car).”

Ferrari has changed the architecture of the power unit to achieve a better compromise between qualifying and race performance, with the emphasis on the MGU-H unit, “A definite weakness was the amount of electrical energy we could recover from the turbo was not good enough to produce competitive power levels during the race. That’s one of the reasons why Ferrari’s qualifying performance was relatively better than racing performance, ” said Allison. “And then (we need) plain and simple horsepower.”

JA on F1 technical adviser Dominic Harlow’s assessment of the new Ferrari...

...Ferrari powered cars were noted to struggle more against Mercedes in Race trim in 2014, when it was necessary to sustain energy recovery from the MGU-H to enable a full 4Mj of energy to be deployed whenever possible. In Qualifying the battery could sustain this for a single lap but not in the Race. Under the engine cover it seems there could be solutions aimed at addressing this shortfall.

[sagi58]

Ferrari's "Sexy" New F1 Car Has A Cheese Grater On The Back

Scuderia Ferrari launched its SF15-T, which team principal Maurizio Arrivabene describes as "sexy." Somehow they've managed to make sharp looking vents and gills look incredibly sexy, indeed. And look, an Alfa Romeo logo on a Ferrari!

While we've all been giggling about the car being the "S-FIST," Ferrari managed to sneak a really beautiful design into production. There's no silly thumb nose like many others have this year, and no ungainly lumps and baubles. Even the cheese-grater-like rear end looks fantastic.

"Enzo Ferrari said a long time ago that the best car is the winning car," explains Arrivabene in a video interview for the launch. "Last year, we had an ugly car, and it was a non-winning car on top of this. I like the car this year, in terms of aesthetics, I don't know about its performance, but it's really sexy."...

...We're talking about sexiness in the same discussion as fist jokes and cheese graters. You know what? I'm okay with that. Look at this car. Look at it!

http://youtu.be/pgBVAwLXg6s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...Also of note are several of the sponsors on the car. Not only is there a Haas Automation logo, but Alfa Romeo makes an appearance. Haas, as we know, plans to enter Formula One in 2016 using a Ferrari power unit.

Why is an Alfa Romeo logo so exciting? Well, Ferrari used to stick its logo on Alfa Romeo's grand prix cars.



I guess that means the S-FIST has come full circle.

Ferrari has a ton of videos on their mini-site for the SF15-T, including a time lapse of the car getting decorated with sponsor logos and other design features...

... Ferrari made a gorgeous car...

Ferrari "mini-site" for the SF15-T

[sagi58]

Thanks to racechick, I can share the following:

Ferrari SF15-T launch analysis



...The pull rod suspension is retained but as predicted by some of my colleagues the team have tried to assimilate the Mercedes conjoined lower wishbone idea (yellow). The idea of which is to reduce the suspension impact on the airflows route to the sidepod/sidepod inlets and how it interacts with the front wing upwash. Underneath the nose/chassis we find a similar set turning vanes the team have run before.



The area around the sidepods has become intensely scrutinised over the last few years as teams try to maximise not only cooling performance via the inlets but also leverage an aerodynamic advantage from the sidepod undercut (the shape of which can have an affect on the floor performance), bargeboards, sidepod airflow conditioners, leading edge slats and cockpit fins. In the case of the SF15-T the bargeboards initially caught my eye as they are split in two with the most forward ones (yellow) leading edge leaning away from the chassis, attempting to capture more airflow as it passes by the splitter etc. Meanwhile the secondary bargeboard (green) looks to recover any boundary layer loss that may occur by having a high angle, longer single version. The vertical sidepod airflow conditioner in blue seems outwardly similar to the one used on the predecessor but there are some changes, firstly it doesn't extrude from the cars floor, instead (like the ones run late on in 2014 on the Mercedes W05) it extends outwardly from the secondary bargeboard, clearing the floor of an unnecessary element, making it easier to deal with the floor downstream. The vertical section of the airflow conditioner has seemingly been orientated inward too, much like we have seen Red Bull do before changing how the tyre wake influences this area in yaw. As per its predecessor the airflow conditioner also arcs over the sidepods shoulder to form a leading edge slat that terminates at the cockpit surround (the team use this as a way of increasing sidepod performance). You'll also note from this image that the sidepod inlet has also been lent backwards (at its base) increasing the undercut and maximising the inlet cross section. The shaped mirror stalks (purple) at present seem unchanged from the F14-T.

[sagi58]

First day of testing in Jerez



This is the first day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari and six other Formula 1 teams here at the Spanish circuit. This morning, the SF15-T was the first car to take to the track, with Sebastian Vettel making his debut at the wheel of the new car. He completed 9 laps, the quickest in 1.25.764. System checks were the main items on the programme which was altered mid-morning, to improve the radio communications between team and driver. The decision was therefore taken to bring forward the lunch break, so as to resume the planned programme for the afternoon.

[sagi58]

Testing at the Jerez circuit



Track: Jerez Circuit – 4.428 km
Driver: Sebastian Vettel
Car: Ferrari SF15-T
Weather: Air temperature 4/14 °C, track temperature 4/19. Sunny.
Laps/Km completed: 60/265
Fastest time: 1’22”620 (Pirelli Medium tyres).
Tyres: Winter Hard, Medium.
Programme: Systems checks and set-up work.

Sebastian Vettel:

“Today was a good start. I can’t say more than that, because this is only the beginning. Everything is different, even the philosophy behind the car, when compared to what I was used to. But I immediately felt at ease within the team and the guys gave me a very warm welcome. For now, lap times aren’t important: I did mine on the medium compound, but the comparison has to be made yet again with the Mercedes. They are very quick, let’s just hope they are not quite as fast as last year…”

James Allison:

“On the one hand, I’m disappointed we didn’t manage to do more miles, because of problems we encountered with the telemetry. However, on the other, we saw the car make progress with the laps we did run.”

Maurizio Arrivabene:

“It seems the SF15-T took on board what was said about it at the launch! Joking apart, this is only the beginning and at this stage, lap times are all relative. We are just getting on with it for now and I’d rather emphasise the work done by the team, who seem to me to be very motivated, which I am very pleased about. I say “well done” to Sebastian, but we have to keep in mind that our rivals, especially Mercedes, must not be underestimated.”

[sagi58]

Second day of testing at Jerez



Second day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari, today alongside seven other Formula 1 teams, in this the first winter session of the year. The team concentrated on set-up work and tyre testing, running the Medium compound. Sebastian Vettel was again behind the wheel of the SF15-T, completing 30 laps so far, also setting the fastest time of the morning in 1.20.984. The team will continue with this programme after the lunch break.

[sagi58]

Testing at the Jerez circuit – 2 February 2015



Track: Jerez Circuit – 4.428 km
Driver: Sebastian Vettel
Car: Ferrari SF15-T – Chassis 309
Weather: Air temperature 4/12 °C, track temperature 5/13. Overcast in the morning then rain in the afternoon.
Laps/Km completed: 89/394
Fastest time: 1’20”984 (Pirelli Medium tyres)
Tyres: Medium and Intermediate
Programme: Tyre testing and set-up work

Sebastian Vettel: “It’s too soon to give a verdict on the true level of this car, especially as we can’t make a comparison with the other teams, who can be running different programmes. However, I’d say we have a good basis to work from. We did a lot of running, even in the rain, when we tried the new intermediate tyres, which worked well, getting up to temperature despite the cold: that’s a definite step forward. The applause in the garage at the end of the session? Well, everyone was happy we’d even managed to run in the wet with nothing bad happening. The boys have got enough to do in the garage as it is…”.

James Allison: “ A bit like yesterday, in that even if we did a good number of laps, you can never claim to have done enough kilometres. However, I agree with Sebastian on the fact that, for the moment, we have a good basis”.

[sagi58]

Third day of testing at Jerez – 13.30h update



Scuderia Ferrari’s third day of testing featured a changing of the guard on the driver front, as Kimi Raikkonen got behind the wheel. Today, the team’s attention has been focused on set-up work on the SF15-T: during the morning, the Finn completed 44 laps, setting the fastest time in 1.24.074. The track was damp in the early morning, which naturally affected the programmes of the various teams running today, but it looks like being a more straightforward afternoon.

[sagi58]

Testing at the Jerez circuit – 3 February 2015



Track: Jerez Circuit – 4.428 km
Driver: Kimi Raikkonen
Car: Ferrari SF15-T – Chassis 309
Weather: Air temperature 12/14 °C, track temperature 11/15. Overcast, with a damp track in the morning.
Laps/Km completed: 92/407
Fastest time: 1’21”750 (Pirelli Medium tyres)
Tyres: Intermediate, Medium Hard
Programme: Aero test and set-up work.

Kimi Raikkonen: “It’s too early to talk about results, but we are going in the right direction. There is still a great deal to do, however this has been a positive start, very different to a year ago. A good job has been done on the car with a lot of improvements. Even though these are only early days for testing, we have done plenty of laps, after Sebastian got through two good days of work.”

James Allison: “We had a better day in terms of reliability and with Kimi we managed a good number of tests. It was interesting to get his feedback on the handling characteristics of the SF15-T, when compared to last year’s car.”