Launches 2009: Ferrari Unveil F60

Ferrari have become the first team of 2009 to take the wraps off their 2009 challenger, this year named the F60 to celebrate the 60 championships they have taken part in. The unveiling took place at the team’s Mugello circuits, having been moved from Fiorano late last week due to poor conditions at the squad’s other test track. The F60 is the fifty-fifth Ferrari the Maranello team have built specifically for Formula One competition.

As with many of the cars we will see in the coming weeks, the F60 sports a low and wide front wing and ending at the rear with a higher but much narrower wing. The bodywork is much cleaner than in previous years owing to the fact that all the extra winglets have now been banned. And unlike what we saw in testing, the sidepods are symmetrical, with no huge vent on the right. This was possibly due to the team mounting the KERS on a 2008-spec. car.

It’s a completely new car, starting from a white piece of paper. Fundamentally the biggest changes come from the new rules from an aerodynamic point of view and the introduction of new technology, which is the KERS system. Aldo Costa.

The team spoke to the press and a feeling of confidence was said to have been in the air, despite the team worried about the introduction of their KERS system before the first race in Australia in March. Felipe Massa also suggested that it is hard to judge the competitiveness of the other teams due to the shake-up in the technical regulations.

It’s difficult to say what the most difficult car to beat will be. We expect McLaren to be very competitive, maybe BMW, who are working really hard and growing a lot year by year.

Maybe Renault and maybe we can have some other team who can show great performance as well. So it’s quite difficult to say but for sure we are working really hard and hopefully it will be us. Felipe Massa.

Regarding the look of the F60, Massa said he was surprised at how compact it was, stating that he thought it would be bigger like the Formula One cars from mid-nineties.

I’m quite surprised because I expected a big car like it was 10 years go. But the car is very, very small, very compact, the rear end especially. It looks pretty nice, it looks pretty good and hopefully it will be as quick as it looks. Felipe Massa.

Team mate Kimi Raikkonen was eager to put 2008 behind him and was looking for to the year with fresh motivation and optimism.

Last year was not exactly what I wanted but that is in the past now and we will try again this year. Of course it is a big question mark how good the car will be because the rules have changed a lot.

But we are very confident that the car should be very good and we will see in the next few weeks how good it is against the others. For sure we’ll try to win the world championships, but we’ll see how it is and we’ll go from there. Kimi Raikkonen.

Felipe Massa then took the new Ferrari F60 out on to the Mugello tarmac for a shakedown, testing the systems to ensure they actually work before any stresses are put through the machine. The Maranello team will be present at four different circuits before the 2009 season kicks off in Melbourne in March, putting the F60 through its paces at Jerez, Circuit de Catalunya, the new Portimao track as well as visiting Bahrain.

Images © Ferrari Spa.