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Binotto: Ferrari SF1000 looks similar but totally different to SF90

Paul Velasco

To the naked eye it was hard to tell the difference between this year’s Ferrari SF1000 and last year’s SF90 but according to team boss Mattia Binotto it’s an optical illusion, “It may look similar to last year but it’s completely different to the one of last year and a lot of concepts are very extreme on that car

The first F1 car built at Maranello for the start of this decade was made public at the passionate launch at the iconic Romolo Valli Theatre in Reggio Emilia, some 30km down the road from the Scuderia’s factory.

It also marks the final car built to current regulations, suggesting that the field will be closer than ever before with little gap between the Big Three teams. But will it be enough to stop the Mercedes juggernaut from making it 14 titles in seven years?

Binotto continued, “Certainly the regulations have remained stable so it’s difficult to transform the car completely. The starting point was the car of last year, the SF90, but certainly, we have been extreme on the concept as much as we could. We’ve developed the car trying to look for maximum aero performance and maximise the downforce level.

“The entire car, the monocoque, the power unit and the gearbox has been really packaged in a way to have a narrow and slim body shape. I think that is quite visible on it. We worked on the components, the suspension – it has been designed to have has had a greater durability on the racetrack for the setup.”

“We put a lot of effort to keep the weight down – we worked a lot on the power unit not only packaging but [designing] each component first to improve the performance and to cope with technical regulations where oil consumption will be reduced by 50%,” added Binotto.

At a time of low key launches, Ferrari went as all out as any team will go in this modern era to make a fuss about a new F1 car unveiling, and as a result, fans were “finally” entertained to half an hour of real news delivered in grand style and fitting of the sport’s greatest teams.

Hopefully, other teams see the benefits of a proper launch occasion and in future may think out the box ahead of any given season, new F1 cars deserve a fuss, perhaps not in the grand scale of the past when no expense was spared, but at least let’s have proper Launch Days back.

In the end how pretty the SF1000 really is will be seen on the track, after testing when everything is dialled to the max in qualifying for the season opener Down Under, and of course in the race 24 hours later. No winning F1 car is ever ugly…