Not necessarily. Ferrari's 2006 car was the '248'.

And Autosport have also reported that the car will be designated '281'.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80783

Interesting. I'm still inclined to believe the chassis# misreport as the 248 was named for a specific reason - 24 decilitre engine capacity and 8 cylinders.

If I'm wrong then I wonder what the 281 signifies?

Still, we'll find out soon enough.

Ferrari 248 was because 2,4 litre V8

People are getting confused here with chassis numbers and the name of a teams race car. The two have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. For every individual chassis that is produced, Ferrari distinguish between them by giving them all a unique number. Towards the latter stages of 2009, Kimi was driving chassis 279 and Giancarlo was driving chassis number 280. The first 2010 Ferrari car to be produced (whatever they decide to call it) will be chassis number 281, the second 2010 chassis will be 282, but these numbers have no bearing on the cars name. The 2006 ferrari car was the 248F1 actually, but each individual 248F1 chassis had it's own unique number. The autosport press release is totally wrong, and I'm disappointed in Jon Noble who put that out. He got that from a confusing press release on the Ferrari website, which was written in Italian and then badly translated into English, which is what has led to this confusion. It is likely that this years Ferrari F1 car name will either be F2010 or F61 but we will have to wait and see what Ferrari decide themselves.

I'm not confused at all. My point was that Ferrari dont always follow strict ordering when naming their cars.

It wouldn't be impossible for them to name the car after the first chassis produced, ya know? Calculate the odds how you like it, I'm just saying its a possibility.

I'm going to put the Italian version of the press release on here, this is a copy and paste from the ferrari.com website. This is very clear that it's just the chassis number is 281, nothing more.

Maranello, 9 gennaio 2010 - Mancano poco meno di quarantotto ore al debutto di Fernando Alonso in rosso. Il pilota spagnolo arriverà infatti il prossimo lunedì pomeriggio a Madonna di Campiglio dove sarà protagonista, insieme al suo nuovo compagno di squadra Felipe Massa e al Ducati Marlboro Team, della ventesima edizione di Wrooom, la tradizionale anteprima della nuova stagione riservata ai media.

Fernando e Felipe saranno raggiunti il giorno successivo dal Team Principal Stefano Domenicali e si tratteranno nella località trentina fino a sabato 16.

Intanto a Maranello la squadra è totalmente concentrata sulla preparazione della nuova vettura, il cui debutto in un test è previsto per il 1° febbraio sul circuito "Ricardo Tormo" di Cheste, vicino Valencia, dove è in programma la prima sessione collettiva di prove dei team partecipanti al Campionato di Formula 1 2010. Nel reparto assemblaggio vetture si lavora già da diversi giorni sulla prima scocca, contraddistinta dal numero progressivo 281, mentre è in corso la serie di crash test per l'omologazione delle varie parti

Fair enough. I dont speak Italian so I'll take your word for it.

Details Emerge of New Ferrari F1 Design - James Allen on F1

Any scans?

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/8039/ferrari2010b.jpg

Great, thanks for sharing!

Have imageshacked it.

Trying to figure out what is radical about the car.

Front looks like last year's Red Bull.

What does the piece say about the oil tank etc?

For the first time in 12 years the oil tank will be moved from the front of the engine to the rear. It is not ideal for mass centralization but is necessitated by the big fuel tank.

Nothing about the illustration suggests its any kind of revolution as a whole, more like an evolution.

The change is...

After being the hole model of F1 for a long time, Ferrari is openly copying RedBull.
RB "inspired" the nose and the extractor of the F2010 contender.

That means... Tombasis surrending to Newey.

English translation and a bit more info about the launch. Looks like Ferrari will have two chassis 281 and 281 ready at or near the same time.

F2010 Launch Details & Translation

i dont like this whole "copying from Red Bull"....if they are copying based on last years car then the team is already behind if the advancements Newey has made are positive

its still a bit early to be making judgements though

make or break year for Domenicalli/Costa/Tombazis/Massa

luckily for them that they hired Alonso so save them from disgrace

Actually having Alonso on board means more pressure for them IMO. In the past they kind of blamed it on Kimi. I don't think Alonso will let them blame it on him if they are not successful.

reminds a bit of 88 ligier with messed up mass distribution

but more importantly, how safe and fireproof will it be on that position???

Do you read this on the last line of the 661 article of official Ferrari page?

You guys are already on the case, but here is what James Allen has to say on new car:
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2010/01/deta...rari-f1-design/

Contradictory to what Marca published, Ferrar's website says Alonso will appear in red from today.

http://www.ferrari.com/English/News/Pages/...onso_debut.aspx

The issue is, the gearbox is at the back, and it wouldn't be ideal to change the shape of the oil-tank.

Why is the shape of the oil tank important?

Under the gearbox is the channel for DDD, above the geabox is shocks etc and space for airflow... Oil tank therefore will be close to the engine, possible above the box? And that is pretty much illogical position.

Do you know where the oil tank was of those A19 and Jenkins' Stewart?

My question to ATM was why the conventional tall and narrow shape of the oil tank is more ideal opposed to the different shape, if placed within the gearbox.

To prevent foaming in the oil.

Ok. Thanks.

Do you know what Barnard and Jenkins did to their design of oil tanks? Have it worked? Jenkins made Rubinho won race...

Alonso better perform well, otherwise people will compare him to Vettel, so far the best driver with the 2009 RedBull aero concept.

Ferrari are copying *ideas* from the Red Bull car, not copying the exact design. The Ferrari will still likely have its own characteristics, and there's no reason why the Ferrari couldn't actually incorporate the concepts applied on the Red Bull with more success than Red Bull themselves, ya know? Not saying it'll happen that way, but ya never know.

Fernando in Ferrari gear

http://www.marca.com/albumes/2010/01/11/fotos_dia/index.html

Not really the best first shot of Alonso in Ferrari gear.

I dont think they have any proper PR shots yet

Think we might have to wait a few days for actual PR shots.

Its usually on the same day, Autosport will have them tonight/tomorrow morning

For some reason, I don't think the Ferrari cap goes with Alonso at all.

Hahahahah good one.

When it happened last offseason no one said anything and then when they saw Piquet mention it in his letter, thought Piquet was BS'ing "cause he sucks". Now with Ferrari, it hasn't even happened yet and people are already complaining.

Will have to wait and see how the car looks... But definately a cool name.

I'm looking foward to the chance of a RB5 clone out there. Ferrari and Redbull RB6 will almost be like brothers since they share alot of the same DNA. I won't know whether to cheer for you guys or not. I guess I'll have to wait to see if it's a clone, or just another car with the same family nose. The airbox intake above the drivers head will probably have the Ferrari characteristic shape, wonder what else will be different.

Like the rock and sock combination, it might good to see a Redbull-Ferrari combination in action. With Alonso behind the wheel!

I think there'll be more than one RB5 clone out there. Out of all the cars that stuck to the spirit of the rules, the RB5 easily had the best aerodynamic grip of the lot. This did not go unnoticed. The envious teams would have had good lead up time to study and understand the RB5 aero concept, and to improve upon it.

Alonso debut 1
Alonso debut 2

hi mates¡¡¡
AS photo

not too cold here(*)






(*) there in the midfield was terrible. And Woking was even worse.

Here's a VIDEO of Fernando, Felipe and Fisi

Amen

GIven they started developing their car earlier last year (a la Brawn) Hamilton said Ferrari are "possibly" championship favourites for 2010

Please keep to the topic and do not discuss other posters.

Hope the new car is an utter rocketship, ala 2002. That would be sweet. Ferrari in the past 10 years have always seemed to build their best cars in even numbered years