JANUARY 26, 2004

The new Ferrari F2004

Ferrari's new F2004 will be unveiled later today in Maranello and the Formula 1 world is waiting with interest to see what Ferrari is going to do to improve on last year's F2003 GA, which often struggled to compete with the Williams FW25. In the last few months there have been lots of rumours about the new car and it is thought that Ferrari engineers spent a considerable amount of time studying the Williams and the Renault before building the new car. It is expected that the team will however have a shorter wheelbase car and that will probably reduce the fuel capacity. This has been made possible because the new regulations regarding qualifying mean that there are usually more pit stops in the races. The cars in 2003 were all designed before the pit stop regulations came into effect and so now is the first time that teams can react to that. There is also believed to be a fair amount of input from the Renault, particularly in terms of the aerodynamics of the car.

Ferrari is likely to stress the importance of the tyres in this year's championship.