Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis defends 'ugly' new F1 car

Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis has defended the look of the new Ferrari amid widespread comments that its stepped nose makes the F2012 'ugly'.

The new regulations for 2012 that force the front section of the nose to be low down - while teams desire the chassis section to be higher up - has led to a number of outfits featuring dramatic step changes along that area of the car.

Ferrari's solution on the F2012 is the most extreme seen so far, but Tombazis does not agree with comments that the new car does not look good.

"There have been some rumours saying that this car is ugly and I have to confess that I am not objective on that, as I don't share that opinion," said Tombazis in a video interview broadcast on Ferrari's website.

"For me I have got used to the bump on the nose. I think the rest of the car has been the fruit of a lot of detail work.

"Ultimately, as far as I am concerned, an ugly car is one that doesn't win and a beautiful car is one that does win. So, for now, I want to believe it is a beautiful car and we will have to review that after the first few races."

Tombazis has promised that the Ferrari is also likely to feature a lot of upgrades before the opening race in Melbourne, with a particular focus being made in pre-season testing of defining its exhaust configuration.

"This car is still destined to change quite a lot before the first race," he said. "We have been working in the wind tunnel and the design office on aerodynamic upgrades of the car - but we also have some very important experiments we want to carry out in the first tests so we can finalise the first race configuration."

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said he was unfazed by the look of the car as long as it's competitive.

"Actually it is not really so pretty from my personal perspective but this is a value that doesn't count in F1. These kind of choices come from technical and regulation constraints, and the choice is to try and maximise the performance of the car.

"As our chairman has already said, [whether] it is ugly or very nice doesn't count a lot. The most important thing is if the car performs."