Formula 1 car reveal season is almost through, with only Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine and Alfa Romeo left to go between now and February 27. Next up is Ferrari, which will be debuting its F1-75 on Thursday at 8 a.m. ET. The bad news for the horse team is that the car seemingly leaked a day early; the good news is that it looks really, really good.
An image made the rounds on Instagram on Wednesday showing the F1-75 in profile, on stage ahead of the big reveal. This couldbe a hoax of course — the account responsible for posting the image, ultimastaccataf1, shared a lanyard supposedly from Ferrari’s private event, which may also just as well be a lie. Who’s to say? We have about 14 hours until we know for sure, and this thing looks pretty real and good, so I’m just going to go ahead and buy it.
(Caution: The next thing you see, should you choose to interact with the embed below, will be the new Ferrari F1 car. I realize this is painfully obvious, but judging from the comments on social media people apparently get really freakin’ upset nowadays if they see something before a company gives them express permission to. Progress at your own will.)
Assuming this is indeed the F1-75, it’s hard not to love. Ferrari’s livery design team certainly benefits from having to do the least amount of work of anyone ever, and yet they still found a way to ruin last year’s car with a gob of Nickelodeon slime for no clear reason. The F1-75 represents a return to form in that sense. As for the chassis, it’s a stunner.
The application of black along the floor and rising up to the rear wing, coupled with those rectangular sidepods, calls to mind visions of the Scuderia’s cars in the early ’90s. Not always the most competitive, but oh so pretty. Ferrari’s no doubt hoping to excel in both respects this time around.
While we lack an unencumbered view of the front and back, there are still quirks of note. The louvers above the sidepods — something prominently featured on the Aston — rise up the side of the engine cover here, which is unusual. And those chunky, slab-sided radiator housings are worlds apart from the dramatically curved sidepods seen on many of the other chassis. Ferrari’s engineers also appear to have opted for a push-rod front suspension setup, deviating from earlier rumors that suggested pull-rods would be used. McLaren recently broke tradition with a pull-rod front for the MCL36, puzzling some.
Ferrari will have to take risks if it wants any shot at reclaiming its spot among Mercedes and Red Bull at the top of the leaderboard. That said, it certainly helps that the car’s pretty, too.
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