The apparent tributes to Ferrari's history in its 2022 F1 car

Many feared that Formula 1’s all-new ruleset would prove too restrictive and result in 20 identikit cars. But as launch season has progressed, it’s become evident that the teams have defied that worry - and instead have come up with rather unique interpretations of the new formula. And Ferrari has arguably spawned the most radical design of the lot.

Ferrari’s F1-75 looks like an exercise in retrofuturism. One imagines that someone tasked its design team in the 1980s to come up with a 2022 design – and that Maranello’s present day work force discovered the blueprints, found they perfectly suited the brand new F1 regulations, and put it into production.

It probably didn’t quite happen like that, of course, but it’s hard to argue that it’s not a throwback to Ferrari’s greatest hits: the tiny inlet on the nose puts one in mind of the Ferrari 641, the sidepods appear to be a tribute act to the early-season 412T1 from 1994, with the upper surface inspired by the louvres from the Lancia-penned D50. The airbox looks like it was inspired by the all-conquering F2002 (with the SF1000’s horns returning), while the car is enrobed in a late-80s paint scheme that should delight all fans of Ferrari’s past, simplistic liveries.

The new nose is of a modular design, which means that Ferrari can change the tip without having to cart around the full noses – which suggests that it has an array of front wing geometries to trial. Other designs seen so far have included the tip of the nose on the second front wing element’s leading edge, rather than the first – but Ferrari’s nose extends onto the first wing element.

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Either side of the nose, Ferrari’s front two elements do connect slightly – which will create a little bit of blockage to the underside but that can be rounded by the air passing through the slot gap. That may also prove to be the rationale behind the tiny NACA duct on the nose, which could yield a chance to bring clean flow to behind the nose.

The front wing is quite inboard loaded, using the inside part of the wing to generate most of the downforce, while it features a spoon-shaped centre section similar to the McLaren. By getting more downforce out of the centre of the wing, it means that the team can trim back the outer parts of the wing and use that to direct airflow out around the front tyres.

Ferrari F1-75 detail

Photo by: Ferrari

One of the biggest curiosities around the F1-75 lies in the sidepod region. Given that Ferrari was the main driving force behind the sculpted sidepods that we’ve seen for the past 20 years in F1, with the F2003-GA featuring a notable undercut to channel airflow around to the top of the diffuser, seeing the team dial the clock back to the mid-90s is, to be honest, pretty wild.

The inlet, which from the side looks like the braying beak of a bottlenose dolphin, features a distinct channel underneath which parallels the inlet for the underbody. Air then cascades along the very squared-off sidepods and out around the back. Like the Aston Martin AMR22, the inclusion of the gills on the engine cover opens up the cooling, so that the rear of the car can be tightened up more.

Those gills fall into another channel on top of the sidepods – which puts one in mind of the U-shaped sidepods seen on McLaren’s MP4-26 from 2011. Back then, McLaren’s goal was to use the channel created to divert more air to the floor. In Ferrari’s case, the dip in the sidepods could be used to produce a similar effect, given the shape of the trailing edge is not dissimilar to the MP4-26, but it also appears to yield a larger surface area to fit the cooling louvres, while potentially also assisting the beam wing at the rear.

It’ll also be interesting to see if Ferrari has managed to trailblaze with its F1-75, or if the car is so outside of the box that it will require a colossal overhaul to make it competitive

In short, it’s not entirely clear – but whatever it does do, it’s clearly enough to earn its keep on the car. After all, if there was any uncertainty about the sidepod design, Ferrari would have probably opted for something more conventional.

Ferrari’s head of chassis area Enrico Cardile explained that, when developing the F1-75, optimising the aerodynamics was the team’s ultimate priority – adding that Ferrari was “open-minded” in developing ideas for the new regulations.

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Reverting to a similar rollhoop design to the SF1000, Ferrari has revisited the triangular design complete with the horns either side – which were removed last year when the team opted for an oval-shaped air intake. What Ferrari will get out of those is some degree of airflow conditioning for the rear wing, which in of itself looks markedly similar to the rear wing seen on the Alfa Romeo car during its shakedown on Tuesday.

Ferrari F1-75 detail

Photo by: Ferrari

The looped transition to the rear wing mainplane looks quite tight, and features a deep spoon-shaped section in the middle to deliver the majority of the downforce. Unlike the Alfa, which featured the V-shaped notch in the top plane to assist with bleeding off some of the wake from the DRS housing, Ferrari’s launch design has a straight trailing edge. One of the interesting side-plots of the 2022 season will be how the teams develop their rear wings within the bounds of the rules for the extremities of downforce; for example, how teams will approach circuits like Monaco and Monza, which require the highest and lowest downforce levels respectively.

Ferrari has also put a lot of effort into redesigning its powertrain ahead of the incoming freeze, aiming to overcome the lobotomy that it received at the close of the 2019 season owing to its alleged bypassing of the fuel flow limits. That comes with adapting to the newly introduced E10 fuel, giving the chemists behind the fuel composition some work to do to address any drops in power thanks to the added biofuel percentage.

To contend with the 18-inch Pirelli tyres, Ferrari has had to rework its suspension, but has elected to stick with the pushrod-front and pullrod-rear compositions that have been time-tested in modern F1. The positioning of the suspension arms at the front has been done in a compact manner, and presumably the aerodynamicists have been able to find enough space at the rear to open out the Venturi tunnels without forcing the vehicle dynamicists to shift the rear rockers above the gearbox. Although it’s a new suspension package, the overall layout should give Ferrari consistency when dealing with the change in tyre profile.

It’ll also be interesting to see if Ferrari has managed to trailblaze with its F1-75, or if the car is so outside of the box that it will require a colossal overhaul to make it competitive. Ferrari’s track record with big regulation changes hasn’t been brilliant, notably struggling to contend with 2009’s large-scale aero changes and 2014’s shift to turbo-hybrids, but also delivered for the 2017 and 2019 aero tweaks.

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Following a couple of lean seasons without a win, Ferrari will be desperately hoping that it’s got the formula right this time. It has the right drivers to be successful, and it has a car looks the part - but looks win you £20 in a beauty contest, not an F1 title. For that, and to end a 14-year title-winning dry spell, the team must recapture past glories and deliver on the road. Thankfully, the F1-75 has past glories sculpted into its visage – and there's a chance that potential future glories await. If it's quick.

Ferrari F1-75

Photo by: Ferrari