What on earth is that?
That, my confused-looking friend, is a Ferrari Design F1 concept vehicle. One that has appeared online posted by Ferrari themselves, so we’re prrrreeeetty sure that it’s official. There’s not much to look at right now, aside from the front and rear view, but the company is inviting comment on the site so we guess they want to know what you think of the idea.
It looks very… odd, doesn’t it?
It does, rather. We certainly wouldn’t kick it out of the garage if it happened to be parked there but it’s not what you’d expect from a Formula One vehicle. For starters, there seems to be too much of it in the above render. Where’s the (visible) weight saving happening, we’d have to ask. The concept here looks like it’s a bit too broad across the middle and the front wing looks almost chunky in comparison to current F1 vehicles. For instance, this is what the 2015 Ferrari F1 looks like:
But it looks like there’s a lot of carbon fiber in place in this concept and the rear wing is a touch lower, as is the rest of the vehicle. It could be that they’re saving weight here, or implementing a new engine design that has dropped the back somewhat. Not a whole lot, granted, but it’s definitely lower-slung.
We weren’t going to say anything but what’s going on in the cockpit? Is that a… helmet?
Yup, we’re fairly certain that’s a helmet. Or a cunningly disguised Xenomorph from the Alien movie franchise. You can see, in the rear view of the car (below), that what looks to be a helmet is a separate part of the vehicle. It makes sense, if you’re looking to maximise aerodynamics, to make the driver part of that as well. He’s not going to be able to check his blind-spot in this Ferrari concept but if you’re doing that at F1 speeds, then you’re doing it wrong.
Any idea when we can expect to see it?
Haven’t the foggiest. It may never see the light of day. Ferrari’s not actually speaking about it yet, they’ve just dumped some images online to stimulate conversation among F1 fans. But if their new, albeit unusual, design is a practical one rather than just a pipe-dream then we could see bits and pieces of it implemented in future seasons. 2015 may be set in stone but upcoming years are still a bit more fluid. And, now that we’re looking at it, the concept is sort of growing on us. It looks like an F1 vehicle designed by Chris Nolan.
You mean Batman Chris Nolan.
Yes. We could definitely see Batman driving this thing. As long as it was black.
