Tag Archives: Tombazis

Wrong Footed By Safety Car – Ferrari F10

For 2010 Ferrari produced it’s 56th World Championship challenger the Ferrari F10, seen here earlier this month at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, that was driven by incumbent number two Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen’s replacement Fernando Alonso in the de facto number one Ferrari seat.

Ferrari F10, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The credits for the design of the Ferrari F10 are attributed to Technical Director Aldo Costa, Engine and Electronics Director Luca Marmoni, Chief Designer Nicholas Tombazis …

Ferrari F10, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

and Chief Aerodynamicist Marco de Luca. A team of several dozen will have worked on constantly improving the design and performance of the front wing alone.

Ferrari F10, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The independent front torsion bar suspension is activated by the diagonal elements that rise from the bottom of the wheel hubs to a position within the chassis above the wishbones. The semi-automatic, electronically controlled sequential gearbox has seven forward speeds plus a mandatory reverse.

Ferrari F10, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

800 hp is claimed from the 2.4 litre / 146 cui V8 which is restricted to 18,000 rpm. The motor is mounted at 3.5° to horizontal to improve the airflow under the car that generates much of the cars downforce.

Ferrari F10, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The 2010 season proved a success for Ferrari, team leader Fernando Alonso won
5 races in Bahrain, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Korea. Going into the last race of the 2010 season Alonso only had to finish 4th to claim the championship.

An unforced team error when the team failed to call Fernando in during a safety car period meant that Fernando was on the wrong tyres at the wrong time unable to challenge Vitaly Petrov for fourth place while rival Sebastian Vettel won the race and the championship driving a Red Bull.

Felipe Massa finished 6th in the championship having been robbed of his only opportunity to win the German Grand Prix by team orders directing him to let Fernando Alonso through to win the race. The one-two result stood despite a US$100,000 fine which Ferrari attracted for the team order call which were expressly forbidden at the time.

Ferrari finished third in the manufacturers championship behind Red Bull and McLaren.

Thanks for joining me on this “Wrong Footed By Safety Car” edition of ‘Getting a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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It’s Not A Pick Up Truck – Ferrari 150° Italia

Having snatched World Drivers Championship defeat from the jaws of Victory at the Abu Dahbi Grand Prix in 2010, where Fernando Alonso went into the last race of the season with a 15 point lead over third placed Sebastian Vettel but left 4 points in arrears to the German in the final Championship standings, Ferrari regrouped for 2011 building a new vehicle with the design credited to Aldo Costa and Nicholas Tombazis which was known at its launch as the F150 in celebration of Italy’s 150th unification anniversary.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Formula One attracts controversy like flies to jam and a large number of jokes by even the most technical minded Formula One anoraks aside it was not long before Ford objected to Ferrari’s use of the trade marked F150 name and eventually Ferrari settled on the 150° Italia in which the ‘°’ stands for the ordinal cento cinquantesimo or one hundred and fiftieth in English.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Technically Ferrari’s 2011 2.4 litre/146 cui V8 powered challenger was caught on the hop having failed to spot the potential handling benefits of off throttle blown diffusers, a failure which echoed Enzo Ferrari’s assertion that aerodynamics are for teams that cannot build engines.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

As a consequence Alonso was rarely in contention for podium finishes as Red Bull and McLaren who had refined their off throttle blown diffusers, won the opening 8 races of the 2011 season with Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull winning 6 and Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button driving McLarens winning the remaining two.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

For the ninth race of the season the British Grand Prix Ferrari had managed to persuade all the teams that they should run without off throttle blown diffusers, which basically hooked up an electronic engine programme to wind up the engine speed when the driver was off throttle to force hot air through the exhaust into the diffusers which produced additional downforce when running off throttle through the corners.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

In the prevalent wet conditions which dried through the race Alonso, starting third, managed to beat the Lewis Hamilton driving a McLaren and Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull to score the Ferrari teams only victory in 2011.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

By the next race the teams despite objections from Ferrari and the Ferrari powered Sauber team reverted to running off throttle blown diffusers in anticipation of a ban on these devices for 2012.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Ferrari ended up a distant third in the manufactures championship behind Red Bull who scored six further victories to take their 2011 total to 12 and McLaren who scored four further victories in the 19 race season.

Fernando finished the 2011 championship 4th behind Vettel, Jenson Button and Mark Webber who scored just one point ahead of the Spaniard. De facto Ferrari number 2 driver Felipe Massa was lucky to keep his Ferrari seat for 2012 after he finished 6th in the championship 99 points behind Lewis Hamilton having failed finish any higher the 5th all season.

Thanks for joining me on this “It’s Not A Pick Up Truck” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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38.907 sec Champion – Ferrari F2008

After an acrimonious 2007 season in which a Ferrari employee had been caught passing sensitive Ferrari documents to a McLaren employee after the McLaren Employees wife was dobbed in by a photocopy shop the 2008 season was relatively calm. The big story of 2008 being the on track battle between sophomore sensation Lewis Hamilton driving for McLaren and Ferrari’s de facto number two driver Felipe Massa who unexpectedly stepped up to the plate while his team mate reigning Champion Kimi Räikönnen experienced a post championship slump that saw him get bought out of a very expensive contract by the seasons end.

Ferrari F2008, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Designed by an international team that included Italians Mario Almondo and Aldo Costa, Frenchman Giles Simon and Greek Nicolas Tombazis the F2008 ran with a 2.4 litre 146 cui V8 motor that was restricted, by a newly mandated McLaren Electronic Control Unit (ECU), to a maximum of 19,000 revolutions per minute (rpm).

Ferrari F2008, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The curious front wing shape was partly a result of regulations demanding certain parts of the wing needing to be a minimum of 5 inches of the ground.

Ferrari F2008, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

This was the last season for which grooved tyres which had been mandated since 1998 to keep cornering speeds in check had been mandated. At the time Ferrari and one or two other well funded teams were running multiple wind tunnels simultaneously 24/7 to seek out the tiniest of aerodynamic advantages.

Ferrari F2008, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Going into the Brazilian Grand Prix, last race of the season, Lewis Hamilton had five wins and led the championship with 94 points, while Felipe Massa had also scored 5 wins but only had 87 points due to his inferior placings, so there were multiple possibilities for Lewis to claim the championship but Felipe had to win with Hamilton finishing sixth or lower to claim the championship. Felipe started well by claiming his sixth pole position of the year, to Hamilton’s seven pole starts, and led the race which was delayed by rain and run in slippery conditions to cross the line first.

Ferrari F2008, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Hamilton meanwhile had started from third on the grid was involved in a battle for 4th position with the Ferrari powered Torro Rosso of Sebastion Vettel going into the final pitstops, during which the dry shod Toyota of Timo Glock overtook the pair of them. Lewis and Sebastian both opted for intermediate tyres. Vettel was the first to catch and pass Glock to reclaim 4th place for good. Hamilton meanwhile only managed to pass Glock who’s dry tyres were struggling for grip on the damp track going into the very last corner of the very last lap to claim the necessary fifth spot crossing the finish line 38.907 secs behind Felipe Lewis relived the Ferrari driver of the World Drivers Championship title. Ferrai did however have the consolation of winning the Constructors World Championship for a record 16th time.

Thanks for joining me on this “38.907 sec Champion” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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