Two Tone Paint - Navigation - Diamond - Scuderia - Camera - Lifter - Ipod - Afs on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ferrari reopens wind tunnel after 18-month refurb

Ferrari is not a company used to being behind the curve, but if you've been wondering how the Scuderia has lost so much territory on the Formula One circuit to a relative newcomer like Red Bull, part of the answer could come down to its wind tunnel.
Seriously, the wind tunnel? Yes, the wind tunnel. Aerodynamics play an increasingly vital role in F1 racing, and while Red Bull has one of the best in the business, Ferrari's hasn't been running right for some time now.
A year and a half ago Ferrari shut down the galleria del vento at its headquarters in Maranello, citing problems with "correlation" - that is, a major discrepancy between the results it got in the wind tunnel, in CFD computations and on the racetrack. Having narrowed the problem down, the Scuderia embarked upon a major overhaul. It's been using Toyota's facility in Cologne, Germany, in the meantime, but as team principal Stefano Domenicali put it, not having your own wind tunnel on premises "is like playing basketball with one hand behind your back." Now the renovations reportedly complete, however, and Ferrari will begin using its wind tunnel again next month.

2015 Monaco F1 Grand Prix race recap [spoilers]

Lewis Hamilton came to Monaco with a new three-year deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a vow to not let anything, including any "mistakes" by teammate Nico Rosberg, stand in the way of his best qualifying effort. Mercedes reportedly made it rain with a 100-million-pound deal, and Hamilton made it rain right back with his first pole position at Monaco. Rosberg did make a mistake but this time it was behind Hamilton, which meant he stuffed-up the qualifying attempts of rival drivers like Sebastian Vettel. So Rosberg starts second, 0.342 behind Hamilton but 0.449 ahead of Vettel in the Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo thinks he should have been third, but a communication error with his engineers left him in the wrong engine setting for his final hot lap, so by the very first corner he'd lost the time he would have needed to get higher than fourth on the grid. The second Infiniti Red Bull Racing of Daniil Kvyat slots in behind him, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi "Not A Very Happy Day" Raikkonen, who just can't get it going lately. Sergio Perez did for the Sahara Force India what the car can't do on its own, which is grab a top-ten qualifying spot. Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz had qualified eighth but missed a call to the weigh bridge, so he's been slapped into the pit lane. Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus inherits his eighth place, ahead of rookie Max Verstappen in the second Toro Rosso, and Jenson Button in the McLaren. Button only got up there because of two penalties: for Sainz, and Romain Grosjean who had qualified 11th but took a penalty for a gearbox change. Want to know how hard it is to do better on race day than in qualifying at Monaco? Even the never-say-die Fernando Alonso said, "Monte Carlo is a train of cars on Sunday, the race finishes on Saturday afternoon." Well obviously, he didn't take Max Verstappen's seek-and-destroy tactics into account. The young Dutchman had made passing look like a real option in Monaco, getting past Maldonado at St. Devote on Lap 7 after a bit of argy-bargy on Lap 6, then taking advantage of blue flags to slink past teammate Carlos Sainz and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas while hiding in Sebastian Vettel's slipstream. He tried the same move on Romain Grosjean on Lap 65, but Grosjean locked him out. Verstappen lined up the Lotus driver over the following laps, then looked like he slipped to the inside at St.

Ferrari threatens to quit F1 over new engine regulations

This past week, the FIA and Liberty Media, the group that currently owns F1, announced a plan to shake up the sport's engine regulations in 2021. The new rules are intended to make things a bit more exciting, though not everyone seems to be on board. Ferrari and FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne fired back, saying that the Italian automaker isn't interested in staying if the regulations stray too far from their current course. According to Bloomberg, Marchionne said that Ferrari will only stay if there is "a set of circumstances, the results of which are beneficial for the maintenance of the brand in the marketplace and for strengthening the unique position of Ferrari." Ferrari occupies a special and unique place in the sport. It's the only team to have competed in the sport since it officially became Formula 1 back in 1950. The team even has certain veto powers not granted to any other team. No other team has more wins or more championships. It could be argued that F1 needs Ferrari more than Ferrari needs F1. If this all sounds familiar, that's because it is. It seems that every time the rules get changed, Ferrari throws up its hands and threatens to walk if things don't go its way. It may sound like whining, but Ferrari has a point. Part of what makes F1 special and different from sports like IndyCar and NASCAR is that each team builds its own cars from the ground up. Ferrari actually agrees with the cost-cutting measures but is opposed to any changes that take away from "powertrain uniqueness." Basically, Ferrari want each engine and hybrid unit to be unique. In the end, Ferrari is more likely than not to stay in F1. The team's bosses will use their weight to sway things in a direction that benefits them because they believe what's good for Ferrari is good for the sport. Related Video: News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Getty Motorsports Ferrari F1 scuderia ferrari