The F2012 is the fifty eighth car built by Ferrari to contest the Formula 1 World Championship and after Wednesday’s launch of the conventional looking McLaren MP4-27, we’re back to the Platypus-shaped nose first seen on Caterham F1′s CT01.

They say that “..a beautiful car is one that wins races..”, so are we to conclude that McLaren are already at a disadvantage? We’ll have a better idea once we see the design of Red Bull Racing’s car, due to be unveiled next Monday (6th February). But the perhaps McLaren are sand-bagging with the car’s design until the first official test.

Ferrari’s statement at the launch of the F2012 in Maranello this morning

The main changes when compared to 2011′s concern the height of the front section of the chassis, the position of the exhaust pipes and the mapping for the electronic engine management.

Practically every area of the car has been fundamentally revised, starting with the suspension layout: both the front and rear feature pull-rods, aimed at favouring aerodynamic performance and lowering the centre of gravity.

The front wing is derived from the one introduced on the 150º Italia in the final part of its racing life and has been evolved from there (minus the wobble hopefully). Further evolutions are planned in this area for the opening races of the season.

The nose has a step in it that is not aesthetically pleasing: with the requirement from the regulations to lower the front part, this was a way of raising the bottom part of the chassis as much as possible for aerodynamic reasons. The sides have been redesigned, through modifications to the side impact structures, the repositioning of the radiators and revisions to all aerodynamic elements.

The lower part of the rear of the car is much narrower and more tapered, a feature achieved partly through a new gearbox casing and a relocation of some mechanical components (this is something that Lewis Hamilton also remarked about with the new McLaren MP4-27).

In recent years, the area of exhausts has been crucial in terms of car performance and much effort was expended on this front, based on changes to the regulations introduced this year.

The rear wing is conceptually similar to the one used in 2011, but every detail of it has been revised and it is now more efficient. Naturally, it is still fitted with DRS (a drag reduction system,) which is operated hydraulically.

The front and rear air intakes for the brakes have been redesigned and work was carried out in collaboration with Brembo to optimise the braking system.

The engine in the F2012 is an evolution of the one that powered last year’s car, which is inevitable given that the technical regulations forbid any modification to internal components aimed at increasing performance. Furthermore, much effort has gone into improving its installation in the new chassis, so as not to penalise the aerodynamics of the car.

Another area on which the Maranello engine specialists have been working is performance drop off, with the aim of maintaining the highest possible performance level throughout each engine’s cycle of use, which has now reached an average life of three races.

The electronic management of the engine has been revised based on the modifications to the rules regarding the use of exhaust gases, a task that has required a great deal of attention and many hours on the test bed. The kinetic energy recovery system maintains its low central location in the car – a choice also aimed at maximising safety – and has undergone an update directed mainly at reducing its weight and at improving the efficiency of some of its components.

Several decades of technical collaboration with Shell has seen further progress on the fuel and lubricants front, revolving around improving performance in absolute terms and on durability over the life cycle of the engines, as well as reducing consumption. As usual, great attention has been paid to the electronics on the car, especially in terms of reducing weight and, obviously, reliability.

With a reduction in the number of time available for track testing before the start of the Championship, which has dropped from 15 to 12 days, preparatory work on the test beds prior to the car’s track debut, has taken on even more importance.

The three test sessions – at Jerez circuit and Barcelona – will serve to get a picture of the handling of the F2012 and to adapt it to the Pirelli tyres. Indeed, getting the most out of the tyres has been an area that has seen a lot of work both at the design stage and in how the activities at the track are to be managed. The car is due to undergo an intensive development programme over the first part of the season, especially on the aerodynamic front.

One can only imagine the surprise though, when Felipe and Fernando were presented with a pair of Scuderia Ferrari styled Jeep SRT8′s in which to get around in.

Formula One drivers are not known for their patience, so I am sure they would both prefer to be sitting in their new race car, rather than cruising the streets of Maranello in a Jeep, no matter how special they look.

Both cars were custom built and feature an aggressive exterior look with an SRT-exclusive design, adding classic Ferrari brand styling cues and the unmistakable Rosso Corsa signature colour.

The seven-slot Jeep front grille is painted matte black and features custom red inserts. A race-inspired, offset black driver’s stripe with a white accent customises the front and rear bumpers, bonnet, the entire surface of the roof and the rear spoiler.

Additional exclusive details include a matte black painted dual-pane sunroof, Carbon fibre mirror caps and a gloss black rear light bar with red accents on the Jeep logo. To complete the unique exterior trim of the custom-built SRT8 models, the Italian flag has been painted on the underside of the rear spoiler: a tribute to the Ferrari F150º Formula One car.

Ride height has been lowered by 3.8 cm (1.5″) and both vehicles run on unique forged aluminium, 20-inch wheels painted black giving them an even more aggressive stance.

In line with the car’s custom exterior, the interior cabin is enhanced by exclusive Ferrari Red leather inserts on the seats with sculpted bolsters. Also the door trim panels, the central armrest and the instrument panel boast exclusive red leather.

The leather-wrapped SRT8 steering wheel with mounted paddle shifters features red contrasting stitching, whilst the unique instrument cluster features yellow dials which evoke the look of the Maranello’s famous GT sports cars.

The Grand Cherokee SRT8 is powered by an all-new 6.4-litre HEMI V8 engine with Fuel Saver technology that switches off four of the eight cylinders when not required, to increase fuel economy.

With 463 bhp and 465 lb-ft of torque (630 Nm), the SRT8 achieves 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds, 0-100-0 mph in the mid-16 second range and can cover the quarter mile in the mid-13 second range. It has a top speed of 160 mph, and can brake from 60-0 mph in a little over 35 metres.

If you’re a Ferrari Community member there are two further ways to get involved.

Earlier in the day, on Friday 3 February 2012, an exclusive Ferrari Passion Day will be held at the Fiorano track where 30 members of the Community will be able to see the new F1 2012 car up close. The event will be joined by drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, together with team principal Stefano Domenicali.

Community members who join the Passion Day will be able to post their first impressions live at the presentation ceremony later in the evening.

If you miss this opportunity, there’s a further chance to gain access to Ferrari’s new car and it’s drivers. A prize draw open to Premium Community members is offering tickets for two people to join pre-season testing in Barcelona from 29 February to 1 March 2012.

The prize includes flights, hotels, lunch with the Scuderia team and a guaranteed grin permanently affixed to your face. If you’re interested, make sure you sign up as a premium member before 12 February 2012, then visit the competition page to enter.

Created in 1988 by former rally driver Michèle Mouton, the only female WRC event winner, and Fredrik Johnsson, the Race of Champions has become the most eagerly-anticipated after party of the motorsport season. This year’s event, run on the 3rd and 4th December, returned to Dusseldorf’s ESPRIT Arena, the venue where relative newcomer Felipe Albuquerque took the overall ‘Champion of Champions’ cup in 2010.

Taking part this year were seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher, the reigning 2011 F1 title-holder Sebastian Vettel and a selection of the biggest names on two and four wheels including, Moto-X rider and rallycross driver Travis Pastrana, 2011 DTM champion Martin Tomczyk, Britain’s Jenson Button and Andy Priaulx, F1 drivers Vitaly Petrov, Timo Glock and Romain Grosjean and of course last year’s RoC Champion of Champions, the Portugese DTM driver Felipe Albuquerque.

Neil Cole interviews the irrepressible Travis Pastrana.

For the first time in ages, multiple WRC champion Sebastien Loeb was absent from the field, but in his place were three rising stars of rallying; Sébastien Ogier (Loeb’s Citroen WRC team mate in 2011), Jan Kopecký (2011 IRC runner-up for Skoda) and Juho Hänninen (Super 2000 WRC champion in 2011).

Naturally, the bookies’ favourite was Sebastian Vettel, the man who could do no wrong in F1 during 2011, clinching his second successive drivers title, but the field was more than adequately blessed with champions, including three F1 world champions, together with champions of DTM, X-Games, WTCC and Le Mans.

If you haven’t already seen the highlights, then I’ll not spoil the surprise by telling you who wins, but you can get up to speed by watching the official review video fronted by well-known TV presenter, Neil Cole.

In fact, that’s the real reason for this post, to draw your attention to Neil’s first column in ROAD magazine, appropriately named “Cole Position”.

Neil has been a familiar face on our TV screens during recent years, presenting the official WRC coverage on DAVE and live interviews at Race of Champion events. This time he provides an exclusive insight for ROAD readers into what it really feels like to muck around off-camera with the finest drivers in the world.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

Neil has an on-camera chat with Michael Schumacher.

Race Of Champions 2011

I am standing in an underground car-park, shoulder to shoulder with Jenson Button, Andy Priaulx and Travis Pastrana – three men at the very top of their individual trees.

We are watching the live TV output of a race… a race taking place about 40 feet and several thousand tonnes of concrete, grass, metal and tarmac above our heads.

The camera cuts to an onboard shot of Tom Kristensen’s face – clearly visible in HD & an open-face helmet – wide-eyed, gurning and snarling as he fights a KTM X-Bow around a tight 1.2km parallel circuit. All four of us burst out laughing at the Le Mans’ legend’s extreme facial expressions.

“TK – you’re an ANIMAL!” says JB. (Initials are the usual abbreviation, just ask DC) and everybody laughs again.

This is the spirit of Race Of Champions. It has the feel of a millionaire’s stag weekend: yes, all the drivers are there to WIN, and to represent their sponsors and charities, but ultimately it is the closest we get to the Good Old Days of Motorsport where gentlemen drivers would walk out of the pub, stub out a cigarette, jump in the cockpit, spit on their hands and RACE.

Read the remainder of Neil’s article in ROAD 22: “Motorsport Monsters”.

Keep up to speed with Neil on Twitter – @neilcole and Facebook.

The Daily Mail Newspaper (the last bastion of truly fine reporting) claimed that “Felipe Massa was urged to ‘destroy’ Lewis Hamilton prior to their collision in last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix”, but then went on to clarify that Smedley told Massa, ‘Hold Hamilton as much as we can,’ and then added, ‘Destroy his race as much as we can. Come on, boy!’

So, Ferrari’s off-the-record spokesperson has sought to clarify the misunderstanding in a blog post on ferrari.com

So consider yourself verbally chastised for entertaining the thought of anything improper – it can be pretty grim up north in Middlesbrough and sometimes the vocabulary of the locals reflects this..

But what you perhaps didn’t know is that he got the chance to schmooze with Ferrari’s F1 drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa a few days beforehand, doing what any self-respecting petrol-head would give his right arm to do – playing with a Ferrari 458 Italia around Fiorano test track.

Alonso and Massa took a break from their Italian Grand Prix preparations to give Jay Kay the ride of his life and from the video, clearly enjoyed doing so. Afterwards, the Jamiroquai lead singer returned the favour – although not before both F1 drivers vacated their seats and let a Ferrari PR man take their place..

Alonso and Massa each drove the circuit at speed whilst chatting with Jay as a passenger – with Alonso pulling a series of smoke-filled ‘donuts’ – before handing over to Felipe.

Fernando Alonso, Jay Kay, Felipe Massa and the 458 Italia at Fiorano circuit.

“Yeah, [Fiorano is] a unique experience, and one that’s a real privilege to go around at. I always enjoy it, it’s fantastic you know,” the singer said afterwards.

Jay Kay owns a collection of rare Ferraris himself and has clocked up plenty of track time in these and the other cars he’s owned. But despite performing in front of such a talented pair of drivers, the singer acquitted himself well.

Ferrari CEO, Luca di Montezemelo with Jay Kay at Fiorano.

Afterwards Massa and Alonso praised the singer’s attempts out on the circuit, “It was fun, he was concentrating on another[sic] style of driving. After our laps he did another couple of hot laps as well, and it was good fun. We enjoy, and we spin the tyres, make some smoke,” said Alonso.

Felipe was even more complimentary of the singer’s prowess behind the wheel of the 458 Italia, “After, his driving and he’s driving the right lines, braking [in] the right place, going sideways after the corner so he was pretty fantastic, so…And for sure [if] we will try to sing – it will be much much worse!” said Massa.

Jay Kay and his band Jamiroquai played to a packed house in their headline show at the F1 Rocks concert in Monza on Friday (September 9), the capacity crowd at Monza Stadio Brianteo were treated to a greatest hits set, drawn from the Grammy winning band’s 20 year career.

Interview with Jay Kay by Ferrari.com

Whilst touring around Ferrari’s Maranello facilities, Jay gave an exclusive interview, speaking about his love of Ferrari, how his music relates to cars and the numerous Ferrari’s that he owns including a recently aquired F40 that he calls “the knicker elastic”..

Enrico Galliera and Dario Benuzzi presented the main technical details, whilst Ferrari’s ever-charming Chairman, Luca di Montezemolo thanked (literally) everyone and then proceeded to put Ferrari’s drivers on the spot with questions about what they thought of the new FF (the answer inevitably was… Erm, it’s superb! Boss).

Some of the key technical details shared with us during the presentation include;

The Key Numbers which best describe the FF

• 660hp – the most powerful of any Ferrari.
• 3.7 seconds from zero to 62mph – the best in the FF’s class (although they didn’t elaborate just which cars they would include in its class).
• 2.7 kg/hp – again a best in class figure.
• 4 – namely the number of seats in the FF, which are proper adult-sized seats rather than the more typical 2+2 format.
• FF – which Amedeo Felisa described as meaning ‘Ferrari Four’, representing the number of wheels driven and the seating capacity.
• 360 g/km CO2 – which is 25% less than the FF’s predecessor (the 612 Scaglietti) and best in class.
• 800 litres – which is the maximum capacity for luggage achieved by folding the rear seats down (increasing capacity from 450L).
• 6 – the number of exclusive colours developed for the FF only – these include Rosso Maranello, Grey AbuDhabi, Grey Ferramet, Blue American, White Italy, Green Racing.

Quotes from the drivers

Felipe Massa – “It’s different from the others (models in the Ferrari range). It’s got a lot of room inside for a Father like me, it’s the perfect Ferrari where I can take my wife and my son in. It’s a spectacular car.”

Fernando Alonso – “I’m not as old as Felipe, so I want more performance from a car – and I think this car can offer high-performance car levels. We can’t forget that it has more than 600 HP, so it’s an extreme car you can use in all conditions – with snow, rain in the mountains – in the past it was difficult to use it (a super sports car) in these conditions, to me in Switzerland it’s going to be a very useful car so I will have to talk to the Chairman (Montezemolo), to the President…”

Key features unique to the FF

• Ferrari together with Michelin developed both summer and winter tyres for the FF, enabling customers to use the car all year round.
• The FF can be fitted with rear headrest TV screens, enabling rear-seat passengers to watch videos and interact with media independently of the driver and front-seat passenger.
• A screen can be switched on for the front-seat passenger which displays the revs, speed and suspension settings of the car – providing a more exciting experience for passengers.
• Ferrari’s all-carbon brakes on the FF should last the ‘lifetime’ of the car and never wear out…
• The 4 wheel-drive unit in the FF weighs 50% of other solutions on the marketplace and is an innovative component, able to distribute power infinitely to whichever wheel needs traction.

Video and webcast

If you missed the LIVE webcast, you can watch the re-run by visiting the following link – World Premiere from Maranello.

The following video was also shown during the webcast and is now available to watch below..

Now that you’ve seen it online, why not go and see it in the metal – the FF will be on show at Geneva from 1st March, at the Ferrari stand.

Audio Samples

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  Ferrari FF – Performance Start, exterior mic.
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  Ferrari FF – Performance Start, interior mic.
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  Ferrari FF – Drive-by, exterior perspective
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  Ferrari FF – Drive-by, interior perspective
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  Ferrari FF – Cornering, exterior recording of FF driving towards mic. then changing down into corner.
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  Ferrari FF – Cornering, interior microphone with FF accelerating then changing down into corner.

Picture Gallery

The ‘International Challenge of the Stars’ kart race features drivers such as Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Tony Kanaan, Giancarlo Fisichella, Antonio Pizzonia and Christian Fittipaldi. It will mark Massa’s own return to competitive racing since his life-threatening injury during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

To make the event more interesting, we have some behind-the-scenes pictures from Rubens Barrichello starting with a frightened Tony Kanaan travelling on the mini-bus to the press briefing. We’ll update this page with more images from the event as we receive them.