Ferrari name their 2013 F1 car the F138

2013 F1 season

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Ferrari’s new F1 car for the 2013 season will be called the F138.

Ferrari say the name is derived in part from the year it will compete and partly to recognise it as the final year of the current V8 engine formula.

The F138 is the 59th car built by the team to compete in the world championship. It will be launched in an event at Maranello on Friday.

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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67 comments on “Ferrari name their 2013 F1 car the F138”

  1. Any idea what time the launch is?

    1. 10:30 CET I think

    2. 10:30 I believe, see this link

      1. @andae23 Thanks. 10:30 CET it seems.
        At the same time as the Force India launch, and at the same time I have an exam. A bit of a shame…

        1. Whoops, forgot to add CET, sorry about that @enigma

          About your second point: same here :(

        2. I’m usually in classes at that time, but this Friday, at that precise hour, I’m having a Philosophy test! God it pisses me off, I know I’ll be at the test thinking about the new car! Tomorrow I won’t be able to watch the MP4-28 launch because I’m in classes!

          I’m sincerely thinking of sending a letter to the teams for them to launch their cars during the afternoon!

          1. @joan-pedro-cq Lucky for me I haven’t got any classes in February, but just a few exams, so I get to see most launches and tests. Plus qualifying and races being on weekends – really suits my schedule this F1!

          2. Fortunally at 10:30 I have break time at school! I might be able to catch a glimpse of it if they show the car soon after the event starts!

    3. Is it being streamed online?

  2. Hopefully next years car will be called the ‘F60’ and have a proper Ferrari name!

    1. F60B? F60-2?

    2. You must be new to this Formula 1 stuff.

    3. Ferrari named their 2009 car the F60, as it was their 60th year competing in F1.

      1. F60+5 then?

        To continue the trend they should call it the 146, but knowing Ferrari that’s probably not what they’re gonna do.

        1. It’ll most likely be the F146 you would have thought. Or 146T1 if they fancy going for a bit of a 70’s/90’s retro feel.

          1. F166 or 166T surely?

          2. Quite right. Though keeping with the “year/cylinders” theme it could be “146”.

          3. Based on previous form the name will be:
            • Completely random
            • Named after a Ford
            • Celebrate a milestone
            • Include a degree symbol (º)
            • and be changed midway through the season

            F-146-GT40-219º :)

          4. 166 is Ferrari sports car from around 1950. I believe that the 166 even entered one F1 race, wasn’t that the one with the Jaguar engine?

  3. Every year Ferrari names are getting weirder and weirder. I hope next year they will name their car with more usual number combination, like F2014.

    1. @osvaldas31 I don’t, I like a bit of variety.

      1. It is certainly nice to have variety, especially when Ferrari have had boring names for a long time, although to be honest I liked those names! The F2007 and F2008 were beautiful names in my opinion, but that’s probably because I love those cars (and the F2004), whilst I hated the 246 F1 name.
        This F138 name is curious and not so obvious, which is nice, although something more specific or more retro rather than random numbers would be appreciated!

    2. My bet is 266 F1.

    3. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
      30th January 2013, 18:51

      I like that they have marked the sad end to the v8 era this way. All the engines in formula one the v8’s the v10’s the v12’s and im sure the ones before each have a distinct sound. The v8 is about to be consigned to it’s place in history and unless the cars are fitted with stereos and a looped cd of v10 orchestra i don’t see how it can get better, only worse.

      1. Before the V8s, V10s and V12s?… there were six-cylinder turbos. And I4s. And V8s. And flat-12s. And a few 16s.

        With all due deference to the ghost of Enzo… it’s just an engine.

  4. Irregular name of Ferrari always confuse me. I like F2008 or F2012-like chassis code.

    1. F138 – 2013V8

      1. But as he says its never used regularly. They can never pick a formula and stick to it.

        1. I find it quite refreshing!

  5. Klaas de Vries
    30th January 2013, 11:27

    Every time Ferrari named their car with some ‘significant’ number the car proved to be a dog (ex. F60, F150′). Hopefully it’s not gonna be the case this season.

    1. Bob (@bobthevulcan)
      30th January 2013, 11:31

      What about last year’s F2012? Yes, improved over the course of the year, but started out as a true dog of a car.

    2. What about the F2005?

    3. The F150 might not have been up there at the front but it was easily the best-looking car in 2011 and probably in the top-10 best looking cars imo, absolutely gorgeous. Loved the Tricolore on the rear wing too, nice touch.

    4. The F2003-GA did just about enough to win a world chanmpionship and it had a “special name”.

    5. Klaas de Vries
      30th January 2013, 13:34

      @bobthevulcan It started as a dog but ended up being a title contender – all in all it was a competitive package.
      mrhanz I meant just one directon not the other way around also
      @geemac Still the main part was of the name was standard
      It doesn’t really mean anything, but for numerologists maybe, I just find it interesting that in the last couple of years each time they had an ‘unstandard’ name they were out of the game.

    6. Remember the 248 F1? It almost won Schumacher his 8th world championship, was by far the dominant car in the second half of 2006 and laid the base for the championship winning cars of 2007 and 2008.

  6. The F10 was by far the most beautiful one! Loved how that car looked in Bahrain!!

    1. I have to agree with you

    2. Agreed, the best looking Ferrari in at least two decades in my view, only 2007 comes close.

    3. Yes! Glad to see some people agree with me about that.

  7. This time it’s just a part of a Ford…

    1. haha fantastic!

    2. I like the way its called a ‘Champion 138’ though, perhaps somewhat prophetic :)

  8. I’ve heard they rejected Giancarlo Fisichella’s suggestion of F151.

    Shame it’s always one car per year now – I liked it when a car was used for longer, and teams would have a new one on the way that would appear mid-season. (You could argue that some of these 2013 cars are just refinements of the 2012 ones). But I guess that requires testing.

    1. @bullfrog why F151? If the 150th was in 2011, surely in 2013 it should be the 152nd. Or does it regard something else?

      1. Because you can read “FISI” in in “F151”

        1. Well, that’s quite megalomaniac from Fisico! ;)

  9. I hope one day there’s a series of errors and Ferrari launch the F=RAND()*999

    1. Haha, great!

    2. This is the funniest comment I’ve ever seen on any forum…. but never mind about an error causing this, they should just name every car hereafter the same thing, and then stick to it forever….

  10. Here’s an enigma – the 2009 car was called the F60, to mark F1’s 60th year. What do Ferrari call THEIR 60th car? (next year)

  11. How about F606T. It would cover the Anniversary and the engine size with Turbo. That would pay homage to how they named the 312T2 form years ago.

  12. Ya know I’d like a car with a name rather than a number……

      1. Sheila**
        sigh

  13. Is that a straight nose with no duckbill!!!!

    I like the name, it mirrors their road cars.

  14. @keithcollantine I’ve found several contrasting reports about the number of Ferrari F1 cars, where did you find the list you used which marks this year’s car as the 59th?

    1. @Fixy That was in Ferrari’s press release. I believe they were referring to cars which have competed in the world championship, so that will include the 1952/3 cars which were F2, not F1, for example. That could be part of the discrepancy.

      1. @keithcollantine thanks for the clarification. Wikipedia lists 58 F1 cars, and the 500 F2 is indeed missing from the list, so that could be the answer. Interestingly, though, the 246 F1-66 and the 312 F1 from 1966 are listed together, which could also mean that one of the two is the missing 59th car.
        Finally, the D50 was in fact a Lancia car, so that could be missing from Ferrari’s list and the previous two might be included. It’s definitely mysterious!
        On a side note, while I was making a list of the Ferrari cars I added the project name, so the F138 is the 664. Going back in time, when I reached 1991, 1990 and 1989, when Ferrari raced the 643 (F1-91B), 642 (F1-91), 641 (F1-90) and 640 (F1-89), I found that the project name of the 643 should be 642, that of the 642 should be 641 and so on. That would mean two of the following cars should be counted as a single project, like if one was an evolution so similar to the previous one that it didn’t count, and I don’t think in such recent times Ferrari would have done so. Any thoughts?

  15. I hope this car will win the world championship

Comments are closed.