Ferrari f1 cars Ferrari have launched their 2011 F1 car at their base in Maranello. The car was launched with several 2010 aerodynamic parts visible
Ferrari F1 puts the red cars of Maranello at the center of the world's most demanding form of motorsport. This article tells the story of the sleek, open-wheel single-seat Ferraris that compete in the most technically demanding form of auto racing. With circuits on every continent, no other form of auto racing matches Formula 1 for financial stakes, worldwide audience, historical sweep, or sheer glamour.
Discover how Ferrari's involvement began before this was known as F1, with company founder Enzo Ferrari in association with Italian automaker Alfa Romeo as a race driver and team manager.
Known before World War II as Grand Prix racing, it adopted the name Formula 1 in 1947. Ferrari's first F1 car, the 125 F1, appeared in 1948. Since then, Ferrari F1 cars have won more races and more world championships than any other maker's
This article has profiles and pictures of such classic Ferrari F1 cars as the 375 F1, D50, and Dino 156 F1, as well as the inside story on modern-day mounts like the F1-2000 and F2007.
Learn about the immortal drivers who captured world championships in Ferrari 1 cars, from Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s, through Phill Hill and John Surtees in the 1960s, Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter in the 1970s, right up to Michael Schumacher's unparalleled run of five consecutive titles starting in 2000.
Ferrari F1 puts the red cars of Maranello at the center of the world's most demanding form of motorsport.
This article tells the story of the sleek, open-wheel single-seat Ferraris that compete in the most technically demanding form of auto racing. With circuits on every continent, no other form of auto racing matches Formula 1 for financial stakes, worldwide audience, historical sweep, or sheer glamour.
Discover how Ferrari's involvement began before this was known as F1, with company founder Enzo Ferrari in association with Italian automaker Alfa Romeo as a race driver and team manager.
Known before World War II as Grand Prix racing, it adopted the name Formula 1 in 1947. Ferrari's first F1 car, the 125 F1, appeared in 1948. Since then, Ferrari F1 cars have won more races and more world championships than any other maker's.
This article has profiles and pictures of such classic Ferrari F1 cars as the 375 F1, D50, and Dino 156 F1, as well as the inside story on modern-day mounts like the F1-2000 and F2007.
Learn about the immortal drivers who captured world championships in Ferrari 1 cars, from Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s, through Phill Hill and John Surtees in the 1960s, Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter in the 1970s, right up to Michael Schumacher's unparalleled run of five consecutive titles starting in 2000.
The thrilling story of the machines and men who make up the Ferrari F1 saga begins on the next page.
Scuderia Ferrari (pronounced [skudeˈria ferˈrari]) is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing.
The team was founded by Enzo Ferrari, initially to race cars produced by Alfa Romeo, though by 1947 Ferrari had begun building their own cars. It is the oldest surviving team in Grand Prix racing, having competed since 1932, and statistically the most successful Formula One team in history with a record of 15 drivers' championships. As a constructor, Ferrari has 16 constructors' championships.
Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen have all won drivers world championships driving for the team. The team's current drivers are Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and its test drivers are Jules Bianchi, Marc Gené and Giancarlo Fisichella.
The Scuderia Ferrari team was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929 and became the racing team of Alfa Romeo, building and racing cars under the Alfa name. In 1938, Alfa Romeo management made the decision to enter racing under its own name, establishing the Alfa Corse organisation, which adsorbed what had been Scuderia Ferrari.[6] Enzo Ferrari disagreed with this change in policy and was finally dismissed by Alfa in 1939. The terms of his leaving forbade him from motorsport under his own name, for a period of four years.
In 1939 Ferrari started work a racecar of his own, the Tipo 815 (eight cylinders, 1.5 L displacement). The 815s, designed by Alberto Massimino, were thus the first Ferrari cars. World War II put a temporary end to racing, and Ferrari concentrated on an alternative use for his factory during the war years, doing machine tool work.
After the war, Ferrari recruited several of his former Alfa colleagues and established a new Scuderia Ferrari, which would design and build its own cars.
In 1950, the Formula One World Championship was established, and Scuderia Ferrari entered in this first season. It is the only team to have competed in every season of the World Championship, from its inception to the current day.
In fact the Ferrari team missed the first race of the championship, the 1950 British Grand Prix, due to a dispute about the 'start money' paid to entrants,[9] and the team debuted in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix with the 125 F1, sporting a supercharged version of the 125 V12, and two experienced and successful drivers, Alberto Ascari and Gigi Villoresi.[10] The company later switched to the large-displacement naturally-aspirated formula for the 275, 340, and 375 F1 cars. The Alfa Romeo team dominated the 1950 Formula One season, winning all eleven events it entered (six World Championship events and five non-Championship races), but Ferrari broke their streak in 1951 when rotund driver José Froilán González took first place at the 1951 British Grand Prix.
After the 1951 Formula One season the Alfa team withdrew from F1, causing the authorities to adopt the Formula Two regulations[citation needed] due to the lack of suitable F1 cars. Ferrari entered the 2.0 L 4-cyl Ferrari Tipo 500, which went on to win almost every race in which it competed in the 1952 Formula One season with drivers Ascari, Giuseppe Farina, and Piero Taruffi; Ascari took the World Championship after winning six consecutive races. In the 1953 Formula One season, Ascari won only five races but another world title; at the end of that season, Juan Manuel Fangio beat the Ferraris in a Maserati for the first time.
The 1954 Formula One season brought new rules for 2.5 L engines; Ferrari's new car, designated the Ferrari Tipo 625, could barely compete against Fangio with the Maserati and then the Mercedes-Benz W196 which appeared in July. Ferrari had only two wins, González at the 1954 British Grand Prix and Mike Hawthorn at the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix. In 1955 Formula One season Ferrari did no better, winning only the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix with driver Maurice Trintignant. Late in the tragic 1955 season the Ferrari team purchased the Lancia team's D50 chassis after they had retired following Ascari's death; Fangio, Peter Collins, and Eugenio Castellotti raced the D50s successfully in the 1956 Formula One season: Collins two races, Fangio won three races and the championship.
In the 1957 Formula One season Fangio returned to Maserati. Ferrari, still using its aging Lancias, failed to win a race. Drivers Luigi Musso and the Marquis Alfonso de Portago joined Castellotti; Castellotti died while testing and Portago crashed into a crowd at the Mille Miglia, killing twelve and causing Ferrari to be charged with manslaughter.
In the 1958 Formula One season, a constructor championship was introduced, and won by Vanwall. Carlo Chiti designed an entirely new car for Ferrari: the Ferrari 246 Dino, named for Enzo Ferrari's recently deceased son. The team retained drivers Collins, Hawthorn, and Musso, but Musso died at the 1958 French Grand Prix and Collins died at the 1958 German Grand Prix; Hawthorn won the World Championship and announced his retirement, and died months later in a road accident.
Ferrari hired five new drivers, Tony Brooks, Jean Behra, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, and occasionally Cliff Allison, for the 1959 Formula One season. The team did not get along well; Behra was fired after punching team manager Romolo Tavoni. Brooks was competitive until the end of the season, but in the end he narrowly lost the championship to Jack Brabham with the rear-engined Cooper.
proved little better than 1959. Ferrari kept drivers Hill, Allison and Wolfgang von Trips and added Willy Mairesse to drive the dated front-engined 246s and Richie Ginther, who drove Ferrari's first rear-engined car. Allison was severely injured in testing and the team won no races.
In the 1961 Formula One season, with new rules for 1500 cm³, the team kept Hill, von Trips and Ginther, and débuted another Chiti designed car, the Ferrari 156 based on the Formula 2 car of 1960, which was dominant throughout the season. Ferrari drivers Hill and Von Trips competed for the championship. Giancarlo Baghetti joined in midseason and became the first driver to win on his debut race (the 1961 French Grand Prix). However, at the end of the season, von Trips crashed at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix and was killed, together with over a dozen spectators. Hill won the championship.
At the end of the 1961 season, in what is called "the walk-out", car designer Carlo Chiti and team manager Romolo Tavoni left to set up their own team, ATS. Ferrari promoted Mauro Forghieri to racing director and Eugenio Dragoni to team manager.
For the 1962 Formula One season, Hill and Baghetti stayed on with rookies Ricardo Rodriguez and Lorenzo Bandini. The team used the 1961 cars for a second year while Forghieri worked on a new design; the team won no race.
Ferrari ran smaller lighter 156 cars for the 1963 Formula One season, this time with drivers Bandini, John Surtees, Willy Mairesse and Ludovico Scarfiotti. Surtees won the 1963 German Grand Prix, at which Mairesse crashed heavily, rendering him unable to drive again.
The new 158 model was at last finished in late 1963 and developed into raceworthiness for the 1964 Formula One season, featuring an eight-cylinder engine designed by Angelo Bellei. Surtees and Bandini were joined by young Mexican Pedro Rodríguez, brother of Ricardo (who had been killed at the end of 1962), to drive the new cars. Surtees won two races and Bandini one; the Ferrari was slower than Jim Clark's Lotus but its vastly superior reliability gave Surtees the championship and Bandini fourth place. In the last two races in North America, the Ferrari were entered by private team NART and painted in the US color-scheme of blue and white, as Enzo was protesting against the Italian sporting authority.
The 1965 Formula One season was the last year of the 1.5 L formula, so Ferrari opted to use the same V8 engine another year together with a new flat-12 which had debuted at the end of 1964; they won no races as Clark dominated in his now more reliable Lotus. Surtees and Bandini stayed on as drivers, with odd races for Rodriguez, Vaccarella and Bob Bondurant.
For the 1966 Formula One season with new rules, the Ferrari 312 of Surtees consisted of a 3.0 L version of the 3.3 L V12 which they had previously used in Ferrari P sports car racers, mounted in the back of a rather heavy F1 chassis. Bandini drove a Tasman Series 2.4 L V6 car early in the season. Surtees won one race, the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix, but departed after a row with manager Eugenio Dragoni; he was replaced by Mike Parkes. Scarfiotti also won a race, the 1966 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, with an improved 36-valve engine.
In the 1967 Formula One season, the team fired Dragoni and replaced him with Franco Lini; Chris Amon partnered Bandini to drive a somewhat improved version of the 1966 car. At the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix Bandini crashed and suffered heavy injuries when he was trapped under his burning car; several days later he succumbed to his injuries. Ferrari kept Mike Parkes and Scarfiotti, but Parkes suffered career-ending injuries weeks later at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix and Scarfiotti temporarily retired from racing after witnessing his crash.
The 1968 Formula One season was better; Jacky Ickx drove with one win in France and several good positions, which gave him a chance at the World Championship until a practise crash in Canada, and Amon led several races but won none. At the end of the season, manager Franco Lini quit and Ickx went to the Brabham team. During the summer of 1968, Ferrari worked out a deal to sell his road car business to Fiat for $11 million; the transaction took place in early 1969, leaving 50% of the business still under the control of Ferrari himself.
During 1969 Formula One season, Enzo Ferrari set about wisely spending his new-found wealth to revive his struggling team; though Ferrari did compete in Formula One in 1969, it was something of a throwaway season while the team was restructured. Amon continued to drive an older model and Pedro Rodríguez replaced Ickx; at the end of the year Amon left the team.
In 1970, Jacky Ickx rejoined the team and won the Austrian Grand Prix, the Canadian Grand Prix and the Mexican Grand Prix to become second in the driver championship. Ferrari driver Pedro Rodríguez was killed in an Interserie sports car race at Norisring in Nuremberg, Germany, on 11 July 1971, at the wheel of a Ferrari 512M.
After three poor years, Ferrari signed Niki Lauda in 1974, and made the momentous decision to pull out of sportscar racing to concentrate upon F1. However, poor reliability with the 312B3 kept them from taking victory that year.
The new Ferrari 312T, developed fully with Niki Lauda, introduced in 1975 brought Ferrari back to winning ways, Niki taking the drivers' crown and Ferrari the constructors'.
In 1976 Lauda crashed at the German Grand Prix. Carlos Reutemann was hired as a replacement, so with Clay Regazzoni driving the other car, Ferrari had to run three cars in the 1976 Italian Grand Prix when Lauda returned unexpectedly soon (only six weeks after his accident). Lauda scored points in the races following his severe crash, but voluntarily withdrew from the season-ending Grand Prix at Fuji after two laps because of heavy rain, and James Hunt won the title by a single point.
In 1977 Lauda, having come back from his near fatal crash the previous year, took the title again for Ferrari (and the team won the Constructors' Championship), overcoming his more fancied, and favoured, team mate. His relations with the team, especially the team manager Mauro Forghieri continued to deteriorate, and he decided finally to leave for Brabham.
In 1978, Ferrari raced with Carlos Reutemann and Gilles Villeneuve, and while they managed to produce a solid car it, like everyone that year, was outclassed by the ground effect Lotus 79.
Jody Scheckter replacing the Lotus bound Argentinian in 1979, took the title, supported by Gilles Villeneuve (who dutifully followed the South African home at Monza, having been ordered to do so), and won the last World Drivers' Championship in a Ferrari until Michael Schumacher twenty one years later. The car was a compromise ground effect design due to the configuration of the Ferrari wide angle V12, which was overtaken in due course by the extremely successful Williams FW07, but not before racking up the necessary points to take both title that year.
Ferrari and Jody Scheckter's 1980 title defence was unsuccessful, as the team's rivals made up ground at the expense of the reigning champions. The team scored a meagre total of eight points all season, and Scheckter elected to retire at its conclusion. For the 1981 season, Ferrari signed Didier Pironi to partner Gilles Villeneuve and also introduced its own turbo-charged engine, which provided more power in a more compact design than the previous normally-aspirated, twelve-cylinder arrangement. The season was a distinct improvement on the last, Villeneuve winning the Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix, but a potential championship challenge was stymied by the difficult handling of the chassis. However, the lessons learnt from the team's first racing experience with a turbo car in F1 prepared it well for 1982. Throughout this season, the Ferrari was the best package, in terms of a balance between speed and reliability.
The year was, however, marred by the loss of both of Ferrari's drivers. Team leader and favorite driver of Enzo Ferrari, Villeneuve, died in a crash during qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix, while Pironi suffered career-ending injuries before the German Grand Prix later in the season. Ferrari first called up Patrick Tambay, in place of the late Villeneuve, and later Mario Andretti in an effort to protect Pironi's lead in the championship, but to no avail. Ferrari did, however, win the constructors' championship. In that same year the Formula One works moved partially out of the original Maranello factory into its own autonomous facility, still in Maranello but directly next to the Fiorano test circuit.
Four wins by René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay won the team another constructors' title in 1983, but neither driver was consistent enough to challenge for the drivers' title. Patrick Tambay took an especially emotional victory at San Marino in front of the Tifosi, but left to join the Renault team at the end of the season. Michele Alboreto was hired for 1984 following his impressive performances during previous year driving a Cosworth-powered Tyrrell. He won the Belgian Grand Prix, but the team's performance was not competitive enough to challenge the dominant McLarens of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost. In the following year, however, Alboreto was Prost's closest challenger for the championship, leading it at one stage before the team's competitiveness slumped in the final races. Arnoux, meanwhile, fell out with the team and was replaced by Stefan Johansson after the first race of the season. 1986 continued the disappointing trend of the previous season as neither Alboreto nor Johansson could win a race, and never looked like doing so. For 1987, Johansson moved to McLaren and replaced by Gerhard Berger, who got the better of Alboreto as the season progressed and won the final two races of the championship as the car's form improved towards the end of the season. The team remained competitive into 1988, finishing second in the constructors' championship, but a long way behind McLaren, who once again dominated the season.
The 1988 season also witnessed the end of Enzo Ferrari's ownership of the team. On 14 August 1988, Enzo died at the age of 90. Fiat's share of the company was raised to 90% with Enzo's only remaining son, Piero Ferrari, inheriting the remaining share from his father. A week after Enzo's death, Berger and Alboreto completed an historic 1–2 at the Italian Grand Prix, the only time a team other than McLaren won a Grand Prix in the 1988 season. Berger dedicated the win in memory of the late Enzo Ferrari.
1989 saw the end of turbo-charging in Formula One. From this date, the formula was for 3.5 litre normally-aspirated engines of no greater than 12 cylinders, which was a direct consequence of lobbying by Ferrari for the previous few years. The team went so far as to construct an Indycar, the Ferrari 637, as a threat to the FIA that if they did not get what they wanted, namely the allowance of V12 engines under the revised formula, they could take part in another series. Due to the expected extreme high revs and consequent narrow power band expected of the new engines, technical director John Barnard insisted upon the development of a revolutionary new gear-shifting arrangement – the paddle-operated, semi-automatic gearbox. In pre season testing it proved extremely troublesome, with newly arrived driver Nigel Mansell being unable to compete more than a handful of laps, but nonetheless they managed a debut win at the opening round in Brazil. Horrendous unreliability led to Berger being unable to score a point until a run of podiums at Monza, Estoril and Jerez including a win at Estoril. Mansell scored a memorable win at Budapest where he overtook world champion Ayrton Senna for the win after qualifying far down the field in twelfth. He then dedicated the race to the memory of Enzo Ferrari as the win came a year after the latter's death.
The 1990s started in a promising way. Alain Prost replaced Gerhard Berger at Ferrari to partner Mansell for the season. As reigning world champion, Prost took over as the team's lead driver and was said to have played on Mansell's inferiority complex. Mansell recalls one incident where at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the car he drove did not handle the same as in the previous race where had taken pole position, and later found out from team mechanics that Prost saw Mansell as having a superior car and had them swapped without Mansell knowing.[11] Prost won 5 races and pushed Ayrton Senna to the controversial penultimate race in Japan, where a collision forced him to settle for second. A disgruntled Mansell left the team at the end of the season.
Mansell's replacement was Frenchman Jean Alesi, who had been impressive during the previous two years at Tyrrell. However, Ferrari had entered a downturn in 1991, partially as their famous V12 engine was no longer competitive against the smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient V10s of their competitors. Prost won no races, only getting onto the podium five times. He afterwards publicly criticized the team, described his car as harder to drive than "a truck",[12] and was fired prior to the end of the season, right before the Australian Grand Prix.[13] Prost was replaced by Italian Gianni Morbidelli. The team won no races in 1991–1993.
Popular driver Gerhard Berger returned to Ferrari in 1993 to help it out of the doldrums. That year, Berger was instrumental in hiring Jean Todt as team principal, laying the foundations for the team's future successes. With the Ferrari 412T, Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi proved the car's competitiveness throughout the two seasons, with a brace of podium places and four pole positions. Bad luck limited the number of wins to one each for both Berger (1994 German Grand Prix) and Alesi (1995 Canadian Grand Prix), particularly Alesi who was in a position to win at Monza and the Nürburgring in 1995, but the car was a solid and competitive proposition.
In 1996, Ferrari made a landmark decision in its history by hiring two-time defending world champion Michael Schumacher for an astronomical salary of around $30 million a year. Schumacher also brought with him the nucleus of his hugely successful Benetton team, mainly in the form of Ross Brawn (technical director) and Rory Byrne (chief designer). Teaming up with Jean Todt (team principal), they set about rebuilding the Scuderia. After Berger and Alesi, who were sent to Benetton in exchange, the traditional V12 had to go also, in favour of a more modern V10 engine, as the rules reduced the capacity from 3500 cc to 3000 anyway. At the same time, Eddie Irvine from Jordan was hired.
While these huge changes resulted in a very unreliable car, Schumacher did manage to score 3 wins in the 1996 season, all of which were memorable. In torrential conditions at Spain, after almost stalling and dropping to ninth, Schumacher went on to win the race by a comfortable margin to Jean Alesi. Following this, Ferrari had 2 incredibly embarrassing retirements at France and Canada, both before the races had even started. However, at Spa-Francorchamps Schumacher used right timed pit-stops to fend off the Williams of Jacques Villeneuve. Following that, at Monza, Schumacher scored a momentous win in front of the tifosi. As reliability greatly improved the Ferrari became the second strongest looking package in the hands of Schumacher ending with a strong fight with the Williams of champion Damon Hill for the win at Suzuka.
For 1997, the increased reliability of the previous year's development, the F310B, led to some very strong performances when faster cars, notably the McLaren Mercedes of David Coulthard and Mika Häkkinen, retired. Schumacher took memorable wet weather wins at Monaco and Belgium, combined with outstanding drives at France and Japan, to force the Williams Renault of Jacques Villeneuve to a last round title fight. However, Schumacher was disqualified from the 1997 standings for swerving into the car of Villeneuve who attempted to pass him down the inside of the Dry Sac corner of the Jerez circuit.
Following the dramatic 1997 season, Ferrari came out with an all new car to fit the new regulations for 1998. Although it was a competitive package, the McLaren–Mercedes MP4/13 was most often stronger. Schumacher won six races that season including three in a row at Canada, France and Great Britain. The Hungarian Grand Prix was won after a tactical master-stroke by Brawn decided to make the car run a 3-stop strategy as opposed to McLaren's 2. Schumacher then went on to lead Irvine home to Ferrari's first 1–2 at Monza since the memorable 1988 race after Enzo Ferrari's death. Schumacher lost the title to McLaren's Mika Häkkinen at Suzuka after he stalled on the front row then suffered a mid-race puncture. Irvine was fourth in the championship with Ferrari second in the constructors' title.
Irvine had been forced to play second fiddle to Schumacher, losing out on points and positions in order to place Schumacher higher in the Drivers' Championship, in the rare occasions when he was in front, notably Suzuka 1997 which led critics to remark "So Irvine can drive!". The leg injury of Michael Schumacher in 1999 reversed the roles however. It appeared to be the year Ferrari would regain the championship with Ferrari winning 3 of the first 4 races of the season. While Ferrari did win the constructor crown that year, a crash at the Silverstone Circuit in the British Grand Prix resulted in Schumacher breaking a leg and missing 7 races of the season, and being replaced by Mika Salo. The new championship challenger was Eddie Irvine, who once again took the Ferrari challenge to the final round in Japan before missing out to Häkkinen who also scored more points in the races where Schumacher had taken part.
Formula One drivers have no spare concentration for operating fiddly controls, or trying to look at small, hidden gauges. Hence the controls and instrumentation for modern Formula One cars have almost entirely migrated to the steering wheel itself - the critical interface between the driver and the car.
Early Formula One cars used steering wheels taken directly from road cars. They were normally made from wood (necessitating the use of driving gloves), and in the absence of packaging constraints they tended to be made as large a diameter as possible, to reduce the effort needed to turn. As cars grew progressively lower and cockpits narrower throughout the 1960s and 1970s, steering wheels became smaller, so as to fit into the more compact space available.
The introduction of semi-automatic gearchanges via the now familiar 'paddles' marked the beginning of the move to concentrate controls as close to the driver's fingers as possible. The first buttons to appear on the face of the steering wheel were the 'neutral' button (vital for taking the car out of gear in the event of a spin), and the on-board radio system's push-to-talk button.
As time went on the trend continued. Excepting the throttle and brake pedals, few Formula One cars have any controls other than those on the face of the wheel. Buttons tend to be used for 'on/off' functions, such as engaging the pit-lane speed limiter system, while rotary controls govern functions with multiple settings, such as the traction control programme, fuel mixture and even the car's front-to-rear brake bias - all functions the driver might wish to alter to take account of changing conditions during the race. Among the most recent additions are the ‘boost button,’ used to call on the temporary additional power available in cars equipped with a KERS system, and controls for the moveable front wing.
The steering wheel is also used to house instrumentation, normally via a multi-function LCD display screen and - more visibly - the ultra-bright 'change up' lights that tell the driver the perfect time for the optimum gearshift. Race control can also communicate with the driver via a compulsory, steering-wheel mounted GPS marshalling system. This displays warning lights, with colours corresponding to the marshals’ flags, to alert drivers to approaching hazards, such as an accident, on the track ahead.
The steering wheels are not designed to make more than three quarters of a turn of lock in total, so there is no need for a continuous rim, instead there are just two 'cut outs' for the driver's hands.
One of the most technically complicated parts of the whole Formula One car is the snap-on connector that joins the wheel to the steering column. This has to be tough enough to take the steering forces, but it also provides the electrical connections between the controls and the car itself. The FIA technical regulations state that the driver must be able to get out of the car within five seconds, removing nothing except the steering wheel - so rapid release is vitally important.
Formula One cars now run with power assisted steering, reducing the forces that must be transmitted by the steering wheel. This has enabled designers to continue with the trend of reducing the steering wheel size, with the typical item now being about half the diameter of that of a normal road car.
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Ferrari F1 puts the red cars of Maranello at the center of the world's most demanding form of motorsport. This article tells the story of the sleek, open-wheel single-seat Ferraris that compete in the most technically demanding form of auto racing. With circuits on every continent, no other form of auto racing matches Formula 1 for financial stakes, worldwide audience, historical sweep, or sheer glamour.
Discover how Ferrari's involvement began before this was known as F1, with company founder Enzo Ferrari in association with Italian automaker Alfa Romeo as a race driver and team manager.
Known before World War II as Grand Prix racing, it adopted the name Formula 1 in 1947. Ferrari's first F1 car, the 125 F1, appeared in 1948. Since then, Ferrari F1 cars have won more races and more world championships than any other maker's
This article has profiles and pictures of such classic Ferrari F1 cars as the 375 F1, D50, and Dino 156 F1, as well as the inside story on modern-day mounts like the F1-2000 and F2007.
Learn about the immortal drivers who captured world championships in Ferrari 1 cars, from Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s, through Phill Hill and John Surtees in the 1960s, Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter in the 1970s, right up to Michael Schumacher's unparalleled run of five consecutive titles starting in 2000.
Ferrari F1 puts the red cars of Maranello at the center of the world's most demanding form of motorsport.
This article tells the story of the sleek, open-wheel single-seat Ferraris that compete in the most technically demanding form of auto racing. With circuits on every continent, no other form of auto racing matches Formula 1 for financial stakes, worldwide audience, historical sweep, or sheer glamour.
Discover how Ferrari's involvement began before this was known as F1, with company founder Enzo Ferrari in association with Italian automaker Alfa Romeo as a race driver and team manager.
Known before World War II as Grand Prix racing, it adopted the name Formula 1 in 1947. Ferrari's first F1 car, the 125 F1, appeared in 1948. Since then, Ferrari F1 cars have won more races and more world championships than any other maker's.
This article has profiles and pictures of such classic Ferrari F1 cars as the 375 F1, D50, and Dino 156 F1, as well as the inside story on modern-day mounts like the F1-2000 and F2007.
Learn about the immortal drivers who captured world championships in Ferrari 1 cars, from Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s, through Phill Hill and John Surtees in the 1960s, Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter in the 1970s, right up to Michael Schumacher's unparalleled run of five consecutive titles starting in 2000.
The thrilling story of the machines and men who make up the Ferrari F1 saga begins on the next page.
Scuderia Ferrari (pronounced [skudeˈria ferˈrari]) is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing.
The team was founded by Enzo Ferrari, initially to race cars produced by Alfa Romeo, though by 1947 Ferrari had begun building their own cars. It is the oldest surviving team in Grand Prix racing, having competed since 1932, and statistically the most successful Formula One team in history with a record of 15 drivers' championships. As a constructor, Ferrari has 16 constructors' championships.
Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen have all won drivers world championships driving for the team. The team's current drivers are Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and its test drivers are Jules Bianchi, Marc Gené and Giancarlo Fisichella.
The Scuderia Ferrari team was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929 and became the racing team of Alfa Romeo, building and racing cars under the Alfa name. In 1938, Alfa Romeo management made the decision to enter racing under its own name, establishing the Alfa Corse organisation, which adsorbed what had been Scuderia Ferrari.[6] Enzo Ferrari disagreed with this change in policy and was finally dismissed by Alfa in 1939. The terms of his leaving forbade him from motorsport under his own name, for a period of four years.
In 1939 Ferrari started work a racecar of his own, the Tipo 815 (eight cylinders, 1.5 L displacement). The 815s, designed by Alberto Massimino, were thus the first Ferrari cars. World War II put a temporary end to racing, and Ferrari concentrated on an alternative use for his factory during the war years, doing machine tool work.
After the war, Ferrari recruited several of his former Alfa colleagues and established a new Scuderia Ferrari, which would design and build its own cars.
In 1950, the Formula One World Championship was established, and Scuderia Ferrari entered in this first season. It is the only team to have competed in every season of the World Championship, from its inception to the current day.
In fact the Ferrari team missed the first race of the championship, the 1950 British Grand Prix, due to a dispute about the 'start money' paid to entrants,[9] and the team debuted in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix with the 125 F1, sporting a supercharged version of the 125 V12, and two experienced and successful drivers, Alberto Ascari and Gigi Villoresi.[10] The company later switched to the large-displacement naturally-aspirated formula for the 275, 340, and 375 F1 cars. The Alfa Romeo team dominated the 1950 Formula One season, winning all eleven events it entered (six World Championship events and five non-Championship races), but Ferrari broke their streak in 1951 when rotund driver José Froilán González took first place at the 1951 British Grand Prix.
After the 1951 Formula One season the Alfa team withdrew from F1, causing the authorities to adopt the Formula Two regulations[citation needed] due to the lack of suitable F1 cars. Ferrari entered the 2.0 L 4-cyl Ferrari Tipo 500, which went on to win almost every race in which it competed in the 1952 Formula One season with drivers Ascari, Giuseppe Farina, and Piero Taruffi; Ascari took the World Championship after winning six consecutive races. In the 1953 Formula One season, Ascari won only five races but another world title; at the end of that season, Juan Manuel Fangio beat the Ferraris in a Maserati for the first time.
The 1954 Formula One season brought new rules for 2.5 L engines; Ferrari's new car, designated the Ferrari Tipo 625, could barely compete against Fangio with the Maserati and then the Mercedes-Benz W196 which appeared in July. Ferrari had only two wins, González at the 1954 British Grand Prix and Mike Hawthorn at the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix. In 1955 Formula One season Ferrari did no better, winning only the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix with driver Maurice Trintignant. Late in the tragic 1955 season the Ferrari team purchased the Lancia team's D50 chassis after they had retired following Ascari's death; Fangio, Peter Collins, and Eugenio Castellotti raced the D50s successfully in the 1956 Formula One season: Collins two races, Fangio won three races and the championship.
In the 1957 Formula One season Fangio returned to Maserati. Ferrari, still using its aging Lancias, failed to win a race. Drivers Luigi Musso and the Marquis Alfonso de Portago joined Castellotti; Castellotti died while testing and Portago crashed into a crowd at the Mille Miglia, killing twelve and causing Ferrari to be charged with manslaughter.
In the 1958 Formula One season, a constructor championship was introduced, and won by Vanwall. Carlo Chiti designed an entirely new car for Ferrari: the Ferrari 246 Dino, named for Enzo Ferrari's recently deceased son. The team retained drivers Collins, Hawthorn, and Musso, but Musso died at the 1958 French Grand Prix and Collins died at the 1958 German Grand Prix; Hawthorn won the World Championship and announced his retirement, and died months later in a road accident.
Ferrari hired five new drivers, Tony Brooks, Jean Behra, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, and occasionally Cliff Allison, for the 1959 Formula One season. The team did not get along well; Behra was fired after punching team manager Romolo Tavoni. Brooks was competitive until the end of the season, but in the end he narrowly lost the championship to Jack Brabham with the rear-engined Cooper.
proved little better than 1959. Ferrari kept drivers Hill, Allison and Wolfgang von Trips and added Willy Mairesse to drive the dated front-engined 246s and Richie Ginther, who drove Ferrari's first rear-engined car. Allison was severely injured in testing and the team won no races.
In the 1961 Formula One season, with new rules for 1500 cm³, the team kept Hill, von Trips and Ginther, and débuted another Chiti designed car, the Ferrari 156 based on the Formula 2 car of 1960, which was dominant throughout the season. Ferrari drivers Hill and Von Trips competed for the championship. Giancarlo Baghetti joined in midseason and became the first driver to win on his debut race (the 1961 French Grand Prix). However, at the end of the season, von Trips crashed at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix and was killed, together with over a dozen spectators. Hill won the championship.
At the end of the 1961 season, in what is called "the walk-out", car designer Carlo Chiti and team manager Romolo Tavoni left to set up their own team, ATS. Ferrari promoted Mauro Forghieri to racing director and Eugenio Dragoni to team manager.
For the 1962 Formula One season, Hill and Baghetti stayed on with rookies Ricardo Rodriguez and Lorenzo Bandini. The team used the 1961 cars for a second year while Forghieri worked on a new design; the team won no race.
Ferrari ran smaller lighter 156 cars for the 1963 Formula One season, this time with drivers Bandini, John Surtees, Willy Mairesse and Ludovico Scarfiotti. Surtees won the 1963 German Grand Prix, at which Mairesse crashed heavily, rendering him unable to drive again.
The new 158 model was at last finished in late 1963 and developed into raceworthiness for the 1964 Formula One season, featuring an eight-cylinder engine designed by Angelo Bellei. Surtees and Bandini were joined by young Mexican Pedro Rodríguez, brother of Ricardo (who had been killed at the end of 1962), to drive the new cars. Surtees won two races and Bandini one; the Ferrari was slower than Jim Clark's Lotus but its vastly superior reliability gave Surtees the championship and Bandini fourth place. In the last two races in North America, the Ferrari were entered by private team NART and painted in the US color-scheme of blue and white, as Enzo was protesting against the Italian sporting authority.
The 1965 Formula One season was the last year of the 1.5 L formula, so Ferrari opted to use the same V8 engine another year together with a new flat-12 which had debuted at the end of 1964; they won no races as Clark dominated in his now more reliable Lotus. Surtees and Bandini stayed on as drivers, with odd races for Rodriguez, Vaccarella and Bob Bondurant.
For the 1966 Formula One season with new rules, the Ferrari 312 of Surtees consisted of a 3.0 L version of the 3.3 L V12 which they had previously used in Ferrari P sports car racers, mounted in the back of a rather heavy F1 chassis. Bandini drove a Tasman Series 2.4 L V6 car early in the season. Surtees won one race, the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix, but departed after a row with manager Eugenio Dragoni; he was replaced by Mike Parkes. Scarfiotti also won a race, the 1966 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, with an improved 36-valve engine.
In the 1967 Formula One season, the team fired Dragoni and replaced him with Franco Lini; Chris Amon partnered Bandini to drive a somewhat improved version of the 1966 car. At the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix Bandini crashed and suffered heavy injuries when he was trapped under his burning car; several days later he succumbed to his injuries. Ferrari kept Mike Parkes and Scarfiotti, but Parkes suffered career-ending injuries weeks later at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix and Scarfiotti temporarily retired from racing after witnessing his crash.
The 1968 Formula One season was better; Jacky Ickx drove with one win in France and several good positions, which gave him a chance at the World Championship until a practise crash in Canada, and Amon led several races but won none. At the end of the season, manager Franco Lini quit and Ickx went to the Brabham team. During the summer of 1968, Ferrari worked out a deal to sell his road car business to Fiat for $11 million; the transaction took place in early 1969, leaving 50% of the business still under the control of Ferrari himself.
During 1969 Formula One season, Enzo Ferrari set about wisely spending his new-found wealth to revive his struggling team; though Ferrari did compete in Formula One in 1969, it was something of a throwaway season while the team was restructured. Amon continued to drive an older model and Pedro Rodríguez replaced Ickx; at the end of the year Amon left the team.
In 1970, Jacky Ickx rejoined the team and won the Austrian Grand Prix, the Canadian Grand Prix and the Mexican Grand Prix to become second in the driver championship. Ferrari driver Pedro Rodríguez was killed in an Interserie sports car race at Norisring in Nuremberg, Germany, on 11 July 1971, at the wheel of a Ferrari 512M.
After three poor years, Ferrari signed Niki Lauda in 1974, and made the momentous decision to pull out of sportscar racing to concentrate upon F1. However, poor reliability with the 312B3 kept them from taking victory that year.
The new Ferrari 312T, developed fully with Niki Lauda, introduced in 1975 brought Ferrari back to winning ways, Niki taking the drivers' crown and Ferrari the constructors'.
In 1976 Lauda crashed at the German Grand Prix. Carlos Reutemann was hired as a replacement, so with Clay Regazzoni driving the other car, Ferrari had to run three cars in the 1976 Italian Grand Prix when Lauda returned unexpectedly soon (only six weeks after his accident). Lauda scored points in the races following his severe crash, but voluntarily withdrew from the season-ending Grand Prix at Fuji after two laps because of heavy rain, and James Hunt won the title by a single point.
In 1977 Lauda, having come back from his near fatal crash the previous year, took the title again for Ferrari (and the team won the Constructors' Championship), overcoming his more fancied, and favoured, team mate. His relations with the team, especially the team manager Mauro Forghieri continued to deteriorate, and he decided finally to leave for Brabham.
In 1978, Ferrari raced with Carlos Reutemann and Gilles Villeneuve, and while they managed to produce a solid car it, like everyone that year, was outclassed by the ground effect Lotus 79.
Jody Scheckter replacing the Lotus bound Argentinian in 1979, took the title, supported by Gilles Villeneuve (who dutifully followed the South African home at Monza, having been ordered to do so), and won the last World Drivers' Championship in a Ferrari until Michael Schumacher twenty one years later. The car was a compromise ground effect design due to the configuration of the Ferrari wide angle V12, which was overtaken in due course by the extremely successful Williams FW07, but not before racking up the necessary points to take both title that year.
Ferrari and Jody Scheckter's 1980 title defence was unsuccessful, as the team's rivals made up ground at the expense of the reigning champions. The team scored a meagre total of eight points all season, and Scheckter elected to retire at its conclusion. For the 1981 season, Ferrari signed Didier Pironi to partner Gilles Villeneuve and also introduced its own turbo-charged engine, which provided more power in a more compact design than the previous normally-aspirated, twelve-cylinder arrangement. The season was a distinct improvement on the last, Villeneuve winning the Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix, but a potential championship challenge was stymied by the difficult handling of the chassis. However, the lessons learnt from the team's first racing experience with a turbo car in F1 prepared it well for 1982. Throughout this season, the Ferrari was the best package, in terms of a balance between speed and reliability.
The year was, however, marred by the loss of both of Ferrari's drivers. Team leader and favorite driver of Enzo Ferrari, Villeneuve, died in a crash during qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix, while Pironi suffered career-ending injuries before the German Grand Prix later in the season. Ferrari first called up Patrick Tambay, in place of the late Villeneuve, and later Mario Andretti in an effort to protect Pironi's lead in the championship, but to no avail. Ferrari did, however, win the constructors' championship. In that same year the Formula One works moved partially out of the original Maranello factory into its own autonomous facility, still in Maranello but directly next to the Fiorano test circuit.
Four wins by René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay won the team another constructors' title in 1983, but neither driver was consistent enough to challenge for the drivers' title. Patrick Tambay took an especially emotional victory at San Marino in front of the Tifosi, but left to join the Renault team at the end of the season. Michele Alboreto was hired for 1984 following his impressive performances during previous year driving a Cosworth-powered Tyrrell. He won the Belgian Grand Prix, but the team's performance was not competitive enough to challenge the dominant McLarens of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost. In the following year, however, Alboreto was Prost's closest challenger for the championship, leading it at one stage before the team's competitiveness slumped in the final races. Arnoux, meanwhile, fell out with the team and was replaced by Stefan Johansson after the first race of the season. 1986 continued the disappointing trend of the previous season as neither Alboreto nor Johansson could win a race, and never looked like doing so. For 1987, Johansson moved to McLaren and replaced by Gerhard Berger, who got the better of Alboreto as the season progressed and won the final two races of the championship as the car's form improved towards the end of the season. The team remained competitive into 1988, finishing second in the constructors' championship, but a long way behind McLaren, who once again dominated the season.
The 1988 season also witnessed the end of Enzo Ferrari's ownership of the team. On 14 August 1988, Enzo died at the age of 90. Fiat's share of the company was raised to 90% with Enzo's only remaining son, Piero Ferrari, inheriting the remaining share from his father. A week after Enzo's death, Berger and Alboreto completed an historic 1–2 at the Italian Grand Prix, the only time a team other than McLaren won a Grand Prix in the 1988 season. Berger dedicated the win in memory of the late Enzo Ferrari.
1989 saw the end of turbo-charging in Formula One. From this date, the formula was for 3.5 litre normally-aspirated engines of no greater than 12 cylinders, which was a direct consequence of lobbying by Ferrari for the previous few years. The team went so far as to construct an Indycar, the Ferrari 637, as a threat to the FIA that if they did not get what they wanted, namely the allowance of V12 engines under the revised formula, they could take part in another series. Due to the expected extreme high revs and consequent narrow power band expected of the new engines, technical director John Barnard insisted upon the development of a revolutionary new gear-shifting arrangement – the paddle-operated, semi-automatic gearbox. In pre season testing it proved extremely troublesome, with newly arrived driver Nigel Mansell being unable to compete more than a handful of laps, but nonetheless they managed a debut win at the opening round in Brazil. Horrendous unreliability led to Berger being unable to score a point until a run of podiums at Monza, Estoril and Jerez including a win at Estoril. Mansell scored a memorable win at Budapest where he overtook world champion Ayrton Senna for the win after qualifying far down the field in twelfth. He then dedicated the race to the memory of Enzo Ferrari as the win came a year after the latter's death.
The 1990s started in a promising way. Alain Prost replaced Gerhard Berger at Ferrari to partner Mansell for the season. As reigning world champion, Prost took over as the team's lead driver and was said to have played on Mansell's inferiority complex. Mansell recalls one incident where at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the car he drove did not handle the same as in the previous race where had taken pole position, and later found out from team mechanics that Prost saw Mansell as having a superior car and had them swapped without Mansell knowing.[11] Prost won 5 races and pushed Ayrton Senna to the controversial penultimate race in Japan, where a collision forced him to settle for second. A disgruntled Mansell left the team at the end of the season.
Mansell's replacement was Frenchman Jean Alesi, who had been impressive during the previous two years at Tyrrell. However, Ferrari had entered a downturn in 1991, partially as their famous V12 engine was no longer competitive against the smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient V10s of their competitors. Prost won no races, only getting onto the podium five times. He afterwards publicly criticized the team, described his car as harder to drive than "a truck",[12] and was fired prior to the end of the season, right before the Australian Grand Prix.[13] Prost was replaced by Italian Gianni Morbidelli. The team won no races in 1991–1993.
Popular driver Gerhard Berger returned to Ferrari in 1993 to help it out of the doldrums. That year, Berger was instrumental in hiring Jean Todt as team principal, laying the foundations for the team's future successes. With the Ferrari 412T, Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi proved the car's competitiveness throughout the two seasons, with a brace of podium places and four pole positions. Bad luck limited the number of wins to one each for both Berger (1994 German Grand Prix) and Alesi (1995 Canadian Grand Prix), particularly Alesi who was in a position to win at Monza and the Nürburgring in 1995, but the car was a solid and competitive proposition.
In 1996, Ferrari made a landmark decision in its history by hiring two-time defending world champion Michael Schumacher for an astronomical salary of around $30 million a year. Schumacher also brought with him the nucleus of his hugely successful Benetton team, mainly in the form of Ross Brawn (technical director) and Rory Byrne (chief designer). Teaming up with Jean Todt (team principal), they set about rebuilding the Scuderia. After Berger and Alesi, who were sent to Benetton in exchange, the traditional V12 had to go also, in favour of a more modern V10 engine, as the rules reduced the capacity from 3500 cc to 3000 anyway. At the same time, Eddie Irvine from Jordan was hired.
While these huge changes resulted in a very unreliable car, Schumacher did manage to score 3 wins in the 1996 season, all of which were memorable. In torrential conditions at Spain, after almost stalling and dropping to ninth, Schumacher went on to win the race by a comfortable margin to Jean Alesi. Following this, Ferrari had 2 incredibly embarrassing retirements at France and Canada, both before the races had even started. However, at Spa-Francorchamps Schumacher used right timed pit-stops to fend off the Williams of Jacques Villeneuve. Following that, at Monza, Schumacher scored a momentous win in front of the tifosi. As reliability greatly improved the Ferrari became the second strongest looking package in the hands of Schumacher ending with a strong fight with the Williams of champion Damon Hill for the win at Suzuka.
For 1997, the increased reliability of the previous year's development, the F310B, led to some very strong performances when faster cars, notably the McLaren Mercedes of David Coulthard and Mika Häkkinen, retired. Schumacher took memorable wet weather wins at Monaco and Belgium, combined with outstanding drives at France and Japan, to force the Williams Renault of Jacques Villeneuve to a last round title fight. However, Schumacher was disqualified from the 1997 standings for swerving into the car of Villeneuve who attempted to pass him down the inside of the Dry Sac corner of the Jerez circuit.
Following the dramatic 1997 season, Ferrari came out with an all new car to fit the new regulations for 1998. Although it was a competitive package, the McLaren–Mercedes MP4/13 was most often stronger. Schumacher won six races that season including three in a row at Canada, France and Great Britain. The Hungarian Grand Prix was won after a tactical master-stroke by Brawn decided to make the car run a 3-stop strategy as opposed to McLaren's 2. Schumacher then went on to lead Irvine home to Ferrari's first 1–2 at Monza since the memorable 1988 race after Enzo Ferrari's death. Schumacher lost the title to McLaren's Mika Häkkinen at Suzuka after he stalled on the front row then suffered a mid-race puncture. Irvine was fourth in the championship with Ferrari second in the constructors' title.
Irvine had been forced to play second fiddle to Schumacher, losing out on points and positions in order to place Schumacher higher in the Drivers' Championship, in the rare occasions when he was in front, notably Suzuka 1997 which led critics to remark "So Irvine can drive!". The leg injury of Michael Schumacher in 1999 reversed the roles however. It appeared to be the year Ferrari would regain the championship with Ferrari winning 3 of the first 4 races of the season. While Ferrari did win the constructor crown that year, a crash at the Silverstone Circuit in the British Grand Prix resulted in Schumacher breaking a leg and missing 7 races of the season, and being replaced by Mika Salo. The new championship challenger was Eddie Irvine, who once again took the Ferrari challenge to the final round in Japan before missing out to Häkkinen who also scored more points in the races where Schumacher had taken part.
Formula One drivers have no spare concentration for operating fiddly controls, or trying to look at small, hidden gauges. Hence the controls and instrumentation for modern Formula One cars have almost entirely migrated to the steering wheel itself - the critical interface between the driver and the car.
Early Formula One cars used steering wheels taken directly from road cars. They were normally made from wood (necessitating the use of driving gloves), and in the absence of packaging constraints they tended to be made as large a diameter as possible, to reduce the effort needed to turn. As cars grew progressively lower and cockpits narrower throughout the 1960s and 1970s, steering wheels became smaller, so as to fit into the more compact space available.
The introduction of semi-automatic gearchanges via the now familiar 'paddles' marked the beginning of the move to concentrate controls as close to the driver's fingers as possible. The first buttons to appear on the face of the steering wheel were the 'neutral' button (vital for taking the car out of gear in the event of a spin), and the on-board radio system's push-to-talk button.
As time went on the trend continued. Excepting the throttle and brake pedals, few Formula One cars have any controls other than those on the face of the wheel. Buttons tend to be used for 'on/off' functions, such as engaging the pit-lane speed limiter system, while rotary controls govern functions with multiple settings, such as the traction control programme, fuel mixture and even the car's front-to-rear brake bias - all functions the driver might wish to alter to take account of changing conditions during the race. Among the most recent additions are the ‘boost button,’ used to call on the temporary additional power available in cars equipped with a KERS system, and controls for the moveable front wing.
The steering wheel is also used to house instrumentation, normally via a multi-function LCD display screen and - more visibly - the ultra-bright 'change up' lights that tell the driver the perfect time for the optimum gearshift. Race control can also communicate with the driver via a compulsory, steering-wheel mounted GPS marshalling system. This displays warning lights, with colours corresponding to the marshals’ flags, to alert drivers to approaching hazards, such as an accident, on the track ahead.
The steering wheels are not designed to make more than three quarters of a turn of lock in total, so there is no need for a continuous rim, instead there are just two 'cut outs' for the driver's hands.
One of the most technically complicated parts of the whole Formula One car is the snap-on connector that joins the wheel to the steering column. This has to be tough enough to take the steering forces, but it also provides the electrical connections between the controls and the car itself. The FIA technical regulations state that the driver must be able to get out of the car within five seconds, removing nothing except the steering wheel - so rapid release is vitally important.
Formula One cars now run with power assisted steering, reducing the forces that must be transmitted by the steering wheel. This has enabled designers to continue with the trend of reducing the steering wheel size, with the typical item now being about half the diameter of that of a normal road car.
Ferrari f1 cars
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