41 replies to this topic

[Bruce]

Do you think that this year's ferrari is a disappointment in the looks department? I've just been working on a painting that includes the ferrari and the more I look at it the more I think it is not a good looking car at all - The main factors that detract from it are that drooping nose and the "horns" above MS's and RB's helmet (which conspire to give them a devilish look while in the car!;) )


I know that the purpose of an F1 car is to go fast and not necessarily to look lovely, and the new ferrari does seem to be a qucik one - but man, I really think it is the ugliest red car since 1996.... what do you think?

[Thunder]

Totally agree. Ross Brawn had stated before the season that they could not use the ant eater nose in some races. Maybe you should wait a bit.

[selena]

Yes, it does not look nice at all. Hope the next season, it will be much better looking as well as fast.

[Bruce]

I actually heard that MS wanted the nose low for reasons of improved forward sightlines - anyone know if that is true?

[theMot]

Seing it on TV doesnt do it justice, i saw it in Melbourne and it looked like one of the best out there. Having said that the last really really good looking Ferrari i saw was the 96 model. Still had the old school scarlet red too.

[Old Major]

The '96 model? You liked the giant sidepod inlets, the bulging cockpit sides, and the single post nose?

The car looked overweight, like it was retaining water. I'll liked the '99 or '00 models myself.

[KinetiK]

Anyone got a picture of that 96 Ferrari?

[Ali_G]

Try www.forix.com

Trust me. It was possibley the ugliest car ever.

Especially the sidepods. Instaed of the usual shape, the duct came out off the sidepods into a sort of tunnel.

Extremely ugly.

Best looking car of recent times was either the 93 Williams or the 97 Williams.

Best Ferrari would be the 2000 or 95 model. THe 95 model was a beauty.

Also the 89 Ferrari was lovley.

Niall

[theMot]

bah your all nuts! That car had GIRTH!

[cygnus]

I remember Brawn giving some indication that they designed it so that they could run a different nose for high-downforce circuits .. w/ a higher nose like the F-2000. I spose we'll find out at Monaco ..

I agree though, the ant-eater style doesn't look as great as last years ..

[baddog]

I think its a pig of a thing (doesnt go like one mind you!)

another area I find particularly unnattractive especially compared to last years beauty is the sidepods which are boxy and odd looking compared to the svelte curves of the f1-2000. Im glad I chose the 2000 car to base my model on.

new regs always seem to make ugly cars till it settles down

Shaun

[Daniel Lester]

Ugly Ferrari's interesting, how about the 98 car with x-wings at imola. Eddie used them and Michael didn't. In fact and car with those x-wings were ugly go look a photographs of imola 98 for the proof.

[Jecko]

At first I really didn't like the nose, but now it has kind of grown on me. I dunno maybe because it is so different from the typical shape of most of the cars on the grid.

I love the new Williams. Not since 97 have I liked the look of the Williams car.

[Rene]

I'll go against the grain here, and say I actually quite like this years Ferrari, its not the nicest car ever made, but it still looks pretty good in my humble opinion

[the goods]

A car is only ugly if its slow. Any car looks good in the victory circle.

[theMot]

What about that 6 wheel tyrell effort That looked like ass.

[the goods]

Originally posted by theMot
What about that 6 wheel tyrell effort That looked like ass.

The exception that proves the rule.

[desmo]

Modern F1 cars are of course purely wind tunnel artifacts. I am surprised they aren't even uglier than they are now.

The F2001 nose looks okay from side view- kneecap level, the endplates on the front wing hide the odd concavity of the nose's underside. It looks alright from high angles too except for the loss of the nice taper in it's width from the cockpit forward. But from eye level, it just looks odd to me, although I'm beginning to get accustomed to it by now. The top of the nose from the cockpit forward has a much nicer arc than last year's with it's high point quite a bit further back and without the odd concavity forward of the cockpit. Oh and I like the more rounded air intake better than the old square cornered bottom they had last year.

Doesn't mean squat though. Beauty is as beauty does and all.

[Witt]

I've always thought cars with low noses look better than those with the high nose config. This years Ferrari is no exception. At the same time, i've always thought that the last 3-4 ferrari's all looked shithouse with their extremely high noses. Now it's Mclaren (who's last 4 cars have been absolutely stunning) who have the ugly high nose and Ferrari have the beautiful, sleek looking machine.

Maybe it's a case of Ferrari fans hating the low nose because it's normally associated with Mclarens or something like that. In that case it doesn't explain why Bruce thinks it's ugly.

[miniman]

..beauty is as beauty does..

Quite right Desmo. I think the Ferrari is quite attractive while the Jordan is hideous.

This all seems to go against conventional wisdom but if everyone had the same taste the French car industry would be out of business.

[Ali_G]

Witt

There is a big difference between McLaren's nose last year and this years Ferrari nose.

it just seems to dive at the last moment. It also keeps the same width until the end. Very ugly.

A beautiful looking car was the 93 Williams. Now that was gorgeous.

or any McLaren from the late 80's to early 90's before they started using the splitter.

Niall

[g0nz]

It looks more like the Jag nose from last year, than the McLaren. still, it is not very nice.....fast though!!

[smarty]

I believe the nose is nice. The ugly part is the front wing. That bend in the middle just doesn't look good.

[g0nz]

I think that the front wings on the Jordan and Benneton are the nicest looking for a long time.

[Billy]

The Ferrari looks extraordinary when you see it at the track, but that's mainly because of the brilliant red colour ... so I didn't notice "ugly" details like the shape of the front wing.

[Witt]

Billy, "Brilliant red colour". Are you kidding? Ferrari sold the one thing that made them recognisable and loved all around the world to a cigarette company.

Other F1 teams have been doing this forever, but Ferrari are Ferrari, it was sacriligious of them to change the colour and is part of the reason why i stopped supporting them, or "believing", so to speak. The last ounce of the "myth" and "legend" that surrounded Ferrari disapeared at the end of 96.

Ali, they may look a lot different but they all got low noses. All beautiful too. But as i said before, shame about that colour.

[Paste]

I liked the car when it was unveiled, but it appears to get uglier and uglier every race. The car looks horrible from the front. The side view is alright, but when I watch the car in a straight line I find myself looking for a bag to puke into. As for the colour, I think it also gets worse and worse.. The scarlet Ferraris ruled.

[Billy]

Witt, under the bright sunlight that red metallic paint is electrifying. I was amazed when I saw it for the first time in Melbourne this year. Even though the original Ferrari scarlet evokes the traditions of the team, the new red paint is still a beautiful thing in its own right. The old colour was deep and flat in tone, whereas the new colour is light, bright and metallic. As well as for the Marlboro sponsorship, it was changed so the cars would stand out more on television. It's very difficult to make something look light & bright on television, which means it has to be absolutely brilliant and shiny: just look at the Jordan yellow or the Jaguar green.

[desmo]

I was wondering where I'd seen the concavity on the underside of the nose before and though it's less pronounced you can see it on the Sauber C18 from '99 too. And while the sidepods are more generic and blocky this year the "melting" ones- like something from Gaudi's cathedral in Barcelona- just looked odd to me.

[Witt]

I had always held Ferrari in high regard for not changing their colours to suit a sponsor or look better on TV. Then they went and did the unthinkable. Enzo would not have allowed such a thing to happen, and i'm sure if he were to arise from the dead today he'd sack every single member on the team for allowing such an attrocity to be commited. Of course, if Enzo were still alive Ferrari would probably be languishing down at the back end of the grid.

OK, i'm over-reacting a bit, but i think what pisses me off about it is that so many greats had raced in those same colours - Ascari, Fangio, Lauda, Villeneuve, etc. The scarlet red evoked the memories of the greats that raced under those colours everytime they appeared on the TV screen screaming round a track. And quite frankly, the Marlboro red doesn't do the same. It sums up one thing, Team Schumacher, and you can't see the link between his great career at Ferrari and all the past greats that had driven for Ferrari. The link, therefore, has gone between past and present Ferrari drivers. Perhaps that makes me scared that those great memories may be lost forever.

Ferrari retaining their natural colour, albeit plastered with logo's on the car, showed that despite all the money in F1, their was still some link to the heritage of the sport. And with just one signiture on a check from Mr Morris, all that was destroyed.

[schumigal]

Originally posted by the goods
A car is only ugly if its slow. Any car looks good in the victory circle.

I got to agree with you here. I didn't even notice any of the stuffs this bb was saying about the car. All i notice was the red car driving to win or in contention for podium position.

[Frans]

Doesn't has anybody noticed that the nose of the Ferrari does look A VERY LOT like Jean Todt's nose?

Coincidence?

I think not......

[ and the nose looks like a dick hanging just somehow...;) ]

ugliest ever? I agree.

[Nikolas Garth]

Originally posted by Billy
Witt, under the bright sunlight that red metallic paint is electrifying.

I agree 100%. In the flesh, that Ferrari Red leaves the rest for dead.

[theMot]

Originally posted by Witt
I had always held Ferrari in high regard for not changing their colours to suit a sponsor or look better on TV. Then they went and did the unthinkable. Enzo would not have allowed such a thing to happen, and i'm sure if he were to arise from the dead today he'd sack every single member on the team for allowing such an attrocity to be commited. Of course, if Enzo were still alive Ferrari would probably be languishing down at the back end of the grid.

Not the same Enzo Ferrari who was willing to paint his cars blue to get Stirling Moss into it?

[theMot]

Originally posted by Frans
Doesn't has anybody noticed that the nose of the Ferrari does look A VERY LOT like Jean Todt's nose?


[ and the nose looks like a dick hanging just somehow...;) ]

ugliest ever? I agree.

You must have one weird looking dick Frans

[Billy]

Originally posted by Witt
I had always held Ferrari in high regard for not changing their colours to suit a sponsor or look better on TV. Then they went and did the unthinkable. Enzo would not have allowed such a thing to happen, and i'm sure if he were to arise from the dead today he'd sack every single member on the team for allowing such an attrocity to be commited.

in the book Enzo Ferrari, The Man and The Machine Brock Yates writes

Tobacco companies like Rothmans, R.J.Reynolds and Phillip Morris had discovered that automobile racing was an extremely effective advertising and promotion medium, and by the mid-1970s were spilling millions per year into the sport. In the face of this massive infusion of funds, Enzo Ferrari stated repeatedly and with increasing ire that the cars of his Scuderia would remain 'pure' and unsullied by the ugly, foreign logotypes of cigarettes, toiletries or financial institutions that were beginning to be emblazoned on the flashy bodywork of the competition.

But, as in so many cases, Enzo Ferrari had a public and a private position on the issue. And, as in so many cases, the debating point was not ethics but money. At the time Phillip Morris Europe was making a major thrust into the sport with its Marlboro brand of cigarettes, and they entered into serious discussions with Ferrari about developing a full sponsorship package with the team. Had this happened, it would have been a total contradiction of Ferrari's bleating about sponsorship purity. And the deal came perilously close to becoming a reality.

According to Aleardo Buzzi, currently the president of Marlboro Europe, he was present at a series of meetings in the early 1970s in which full Marlboro sponsorship of the Ferrari team was discussed. A deal was almost concluded when Buzzi's boss noted that because of certain financial requirements within the company, the sponsorship funds would be paid in lire. Ferrari demanded either dollars or Swiss francs. Surely the funds, had they been forthcoming, would have been deposited in banks in Monaco or Geneva or both.

When the Marlboro people would not budge from their offer of lire or nothing, Ferrari stood up from the table, cast a glance at his watch and said, 'Gentleman, my wife is very ill. I must visit her. Therefore the meeting is concluded.' As with Ford's Donald Frey a decade earlier, he left the session, never to return. Marlboro was not to appear on the cowling of the Ferrari Grand Prix cars for another decade, and then only under the subterfuge that the sponsorship was on behalf of the drivers, not the cars.

[Zeus]

I agree that the Ferrari is homely looking from the front. But take a minute to notice the rear view of the Ferrari-- from the back (aka: the most commonly seen view of the car) the Ferrari looks great.

[KinetiK]

One thing I noticed immediately upon seeing the Penske CART cars for the first time in the flesh was that the red I was so used to seeing on the television wasnt' red but it was this orangey-red-metallic-bright-something colour. Is the Ferrari the same colour as the Penske Marlboro cars in real life?

Just as an aside, a good friend here in Calgary managed to get a 1 liter can of Penske Marlboro Red from one of the PPG painters down in the States. Apparently the paint isn't available on the open market, my friend is getting some non-descript die cast CART models painted with the Penske red and the #99 series decals on them. That'll be a sight when he's done with the cars... i've got shivers already.

[Witt]

Hmmm, that's very interesting what you posted their Billy, sheds a bit more light on the situation. Perhaps i've had the wrong impression of what Enzo was like, but i guess almost everyone did because all this "new" information only came out after his death (i presume).

Still, i stick to my other point. Marlboro Red doesn't evoke the memories of past Ferrari drivers tearing up the tracks like the proper red did.

And motty, before you get all defensive, i bet that quote was just a figure of speech. You're a big Ferrari fan, surely you too must notice that Marlboro Red doesn't bear any resemblance to Ferrari's past as Ferrari scarlet red did?

[Ali_G]

By any chance does any one here hate high noses.

I am not saying ones like Ferrari's nose last year but even McLaren's last year.

What i want is a ban on splitters and maybe finally we will see better lookings cars.

Just look at the 88 McLaren or the 89 Ferrari.

What beauties they were.

Niall

[OLEV]

Maybe it's just me, but more and more I've been noticing how good and aggressive this year's Ferrari looks FROM BEHIND! I suppose that's where the team expects it to be viewed from on the track most often...

[Bruce]

I agree with you, Niall, there were some real beauties in the late 80s... think too of the Lotus 97T - a beautiful shape complemented by a beautiful colour scheme.

I suppose that, in looking at it what bothers me about the ferrari is the nose - and as someone mentioned, the way the wing droops in the middle, almost as if the nose is pushing it down.... The nose itself "droops" which I think is an unfortunate look - this is magnified by the empty space under the nose... It took a while for me to get to like the raised noses, but I think that there have been some exceptionally pretty cars with the high nose - the problem with the ferrari is that it seems to me to be the worst of both worlds, in terms of the nose anyway...

I also don't much like the little winglets just in front of the back wheels, they look like an afterthought...

But, as others have mentioned,I'll bet Ferrari aren't losing any sleep over it as long as it's in the winners circle...