Ferrari Scrap 2005 Car Designs

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn revealed on Saturday that the World Champions have scrapped development on their 2005 car and could start next season with their current machine.

Brawn said that all work carried out on the 2005 car has been effectively thrown in the bin after new regulations were put forward for next year by the sport's governing body the FIA before the French Grand Prix.

Those changes are likely to be accepted by the teams to be brought in for next year's season-opening race in March and Brawn said his team are now working on designs based on the proposed new regulations.

In the past Ferrari have opted to start new seasons with their old car until reliability had been reached in testing, but Brawn thinks a number of teams will begin 2005 using the same cars they finish this year with.

"We had already started next year's car and done quite a lot of work on it and most of that is now scrapped," Brawn said. "We have had to stop gearbox design and have put a hold on some of the chassis design.

"The engine that we were making has been stopped and we are now going to keep the same engine because of the requirement for it to last for two races. So (the rule changes) have had quite an impact and a lot of teams will be looking at taking their old cars to the first few races. It is a big compromise but you have to design a car for next year that is good over 19 races.

"I think it will be a struggle for teams to do a really good job for the first race of the season and I think a lot of teams will choose to have a compromise for the first few races to do a better job for the subsequent races.

"Particularly if we have 19 races on the calendar then if you do the first four races with your old car you still have 15 races to take advantage of the extra time."

Ferrari's current machine has proved the class of the field this year and they could win a sixth successive Constructors' Championship in this weekend's German Grand Prix. Any performance improvement in the remaining races of the year will come from tyre development and small engine tweaks rather than any new mechanical and aerodynamic chassis parts from Ferrari, Brawn said.

"The FIA have been asking us for a couple of years to come forward with proposals to slow the car and, of course, generally we like to see the cars go fast so it is not our priority to slow them down," said Brawn.

"We have only got ourselves to blame because we didn't respond early enough and what we have now is what you always have as a consequence of making rule changes that late. It was probably time we did make some changes and if we didn't they would be another one or two seconds faster next year. And we have probably got the most to lose because we are winning in a strong fashion.

"Some people feel it is a good thing to shake the whole thing up and cause a little bit of chaos. It is no bad thing because it is may change the natural order of things. We accept the changes are necessary and we look upon it as a new challenge and a new set of rules we have to build the best car to. Our people are now working hard on the proposed new regulations."