FEBRUARY 25, 2005

Ferrari launches the new F2005

Ferrari has unveiled the new F2005 which will be used later this year by the Italian team. The team will begin testing with the car immediately and will continue unfettered by the gentleman's agreement between the other teams which have agreed to restrict their testing in order to cut costs. Ferrari has refused to join this initiative and so will undoubtedly gain some advantage from this although all victories that the team achieves this year (if there are any) will be overshadowed by the fact that the team had more testing than the opposition. Ferrari makes no secret of the fact that it thinks it is more important that the other F1 teams and should be paid more. This is the major stumbling block in the recent dealings between the teams and the F1 commercial rights holder.

"Ferrari has always been special and is tied to F1 just as F1 is tied to Ferrari," said Jean Todt. "It helped to create what F1 is today. It is like in the movies where the stars get paid more. Ferrari is a star and wants to be paid like a star. The others might be frustrated but they would demand the same if they were in our situation."

It is an interesting argument but one that may backfire on Ferrari as the other teams are now intent on pushing ahead without Ferrari, which would leave the Italian company with no-one credible to race against if there are two series in 2008.

The new car is a development of the successful F2005 but features an interesting nose arrangement with an auxiliary front wing under the nose. The team says that it is the best car that it has ever produced but the team is still not sure whether it will be enough to hold off the attack of the other teams - even if Ferrari does have a testing advantage.

The most interesting thing about the new car is probably the fact that it features Fiat branding on the nose. It is unlikely that this will involve any money, given Fiat's current financial state but may involve technology transfer.