First pictures and video: Ferrari SF-15T revealed

2015 F1 testing

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The first pictures of the Ferrari SF-15T, which will be driven by Sebastian Vettel, and Kimi Raikkonen, have appeared.

Technical director James Allison said the team aimed to address the “unacceptably large gap in our performance” last year, when Ferrari failed to win a race for the first time since 1993.

“We’ve tried to make sure the weaknesses we felt were particularly notable on the ’14 car were put right for the 15 car,” he said.

Allison said the team have made major gains with the packaging of the car at the rear. The back of the car is something that is noticeably different from the 2014 car where we have been successful in pulling the bodywork much tighter to everything underneath the skin,” he explained.

“That’s been done through a lot of work not just in the wind tunnel but also in the design heart of the company to try and find radiator designs that were fundamentally more efficient. So for every square centimetre of radiator we’re able to extract more cooling this year than last and therefore able to close the car down at the back significantly.”

The front of the car features a long, smooth nose which is familiar from other designs which have already appeared following another change in the regulations governing this part of the car.

“I think all the cars on the grid this year are going to be more appealing around the front,” said Allison, “because after after a few years of trying I think we’ve finally invented a regulation that gets what we wanted from a safety point of view but also doesn’t create the rather unappealing features of the last few years”.

“So I think everyone will look a lot prettier from the front and the 2015 Ferrari is, I think, nice in that regard.”

Ferrari has also chosen to retain its pull-rod suspension layout, which sets it apart from other teams. Allison explained how the team had taken the decision to keep it.

“Every year you set out which areas of the car you think you should put your effort into to try and improve them,” he said. “These are decisions that need to be taken quite carefully because when you make a choice of working on one part of the car, because you don’t have infinite resources, you’re effectively making a choice not to work on the other part of the car.

“So when you decide what to work on you have to pick quite carefully the things that you think are going to bring the maximum amount of return for your effort. And push-rod, poll-rod on the front, it has pros and cons either side.

“Pull-rod is probably harder to get light and stiff but it’s probably a bit easier to get an aerodynamic performance from it. So it’s swings and roundabouts. It was an area of the car that was something that wasn’t felt to be a problem on last year’s car and therefore not an area that really merited investment of effort in this time around on the SF-15T.”

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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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129 comments on “First pictures and video: Ferrari SF-15T revealed”

  1. Yay a proper nose

    1. looks like italian nose :P

    2. a lot like what we already saw from the McLaren, you mean?

    3. @sam3110 I almost got the first comment for 3 car launches. I’m sad I missed out on Ferrari.

    4. looks ugly. not better than last year.

      1. It’s not perfect, but anything is better than what they had last year.

        1. Better than Ferrari 2014, but not better than 2014 noses in overall at all… McLaren is better a bit, but isn’t great either. Williams nose is much worse than they had last year.

          They promised no ugly noses this year. They lied. If they want low noses then it should be like late 1980’s-early 1990’s.

    5. Yeah…the SF-15T is easily the best looking car in terms of both shape and livery of all the 2015 ones already unveiled. It hasn’t disappointed at all. And I’m in love with the nose and the way the black colour is separated from the scarlet through a white border throughout the sides of the body. Hats off! The Sauber livery looks pretty cool too thanks to the vibrant blue colour and the contrasting yellow on the sidepods…McLaren and Force India – learn from Ferrari and Sauber. Change your colour scheme before the season begins, pleaaase….

      1. Many people here are blind or just jealous, they cant recognize beautiful piece !!! I agree with you, this year Ferrari car looks stunning !!! we do not know how it will perform on the track,but i’m glad about how she looks.

  2. It looks very similar to the F14-T, except for the front nose. However, the nose of the Ferrari for some odd reason looks odd for me, unlike the McLaren. Anyone else agree?

    1. It’s funny but I think the opposite… and I’m a McLaren fan. This Ferrari nose actually seems cool from this angle.

      1. @mashiat2 Actually, the more I look at it, the less odd it seems. Same thing happened with the Williams and the Force India’s is similar to last year’s (although I’m still warming to the Sauber)

        1. @miguelbaneto I’m sorry. I accidentally mentioned myself!

          1. @miguelbento

            I don’t know what’s happened to me! Pre-season launch excitement!

    2. Yes I don’t like the wide noses on the Ferrari or Sauber. Looks like the car is sticking it’s tongue out! The nose on the McLaren is much nicer, as is the nose on the Lotus.

      1. @tthwaite I agree with you. It looks really flat and pointless

        1. terrible looking forward

      2. @tthwaite Maybe Allison is a big fan of the Rolling Stones, and wanted to make an homage with that nose :D

    3. It would be perfect if a big shorter. But I’m talking about beauty, maybe that extra lenght will give them the performance.

      I just hope their PU is much better.

  3. hail the Ferrari surf board !

    1. Yup, it’s about as ugly as last year’s nose

  4. Is it just me or are those sidepods small? Even more so than the Mercedes?

    1. It will be interesting to see more pictures.

      From this picture it looks like the ‘monkey seat’ wing is attached to the shark fin.

    2. Ohh more pictures added, looking at pictures of F14T it seems the sidepods are very similar, the SF-15T seems to have more ‘flared’ opening though.

    3. Definitely smaller than Mercedes. Front on there’s a gap between the wheels and side pods on the Ferrari.

    4. I think it has to do with the camera lens / angle of the photo. Look at the front wing. On the Ferrari the endplates cover the wheels, but not in the Mercedes photo (assuming Merc used the maximum width allowed). So there is some distortion between both camera lenses. Possibly between a prime and telephoto lens. I wouldn‘t put too much trust on these early photos until we get a fairer comparison.

  5. So Ferrari and McLaren (long noses) have gone in a very different direction to the shorter nosed Mercedes, Lotus and Williams.

    I wonder which philosophy Red Bull will adopt.

  6. I need to get used to this red Ferrari/livery belonging to Vettel instead of Alonso now.

    1. Talking about Vettel, dude seems to have shed some weight. Almost unrecognisable without the smile.

      1. They haven’t feed him for two months to get into car weight limit.
        His roung cheeks are gone.

        1. @Tata @zukman
          I was thinking the same thing. He looks unhealthy and gaunt. I wonder if he’s been sick because that doesn’t look like dieting.

          1. Yep. I am wondering why it seems he lost some weight. It can’t be due to overall weight of driver and car because Kimi looks his normal self.
            As u said, Seb looks like he had been sick or something.

  7. I wonder if Williams will be the only team to follow the thumb solution? (I mean, Force India’s is not really a thumb, more like a anteater).

    1. FI haven’t revealed their car yet, only the livery.

      So yeah, at the moment it’s only Williams that has a similar nose to last year’s, but they got their aero pretty right last year, so I have hope for 2015.

      Noses are still very different this year, especially where the tip ends (before/after the front wing). I like the variety.

      1. The car at the livery reveal did have a 2015 nose though

        1. Yeah I noticed that, but would that really be the definitive nose? If the car isn’t the 2015 model, the only reason I can think of to change the nose is cosmetic (which, admittedly, is a very good reason given how last year’s nose looked…)

        2. They just didn’t want have a ugly nose at that event. I don’t think they want reveal their real design so early

  8. Alfa Romeo :)

    1. Yes, and no FIAT logo on a car.

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        30th January 2015, 13:25

        then why not call it the 41F4 R0M30

      2. @nikola0406 @gunusugeh I genuinely do not understand why that is.

    2. booooo

    3. So, it’s a Ferrari-Alfa Romeo, then? well, that way they can’t blame themselves for lack of engine power :D

      1. It’ll never run long enough for them to measure it.

        1. Mashiat Lam Gofran
          30th January 2015, 18:07

          @neilosjames But it’s a F.A.R.

    4. I like the Alfa Romeo sponsorship on a Ferrari – I guess it means that after the Scuderia Ferrari logo on Alfas in the 1930s (before Ferrari started building his own cars), they have in a way come full circle.

  9. It’s nice that this year the cars actually look quite attractive. I feel like I can get my friends interested in F1 without telling them to ignore the ugly looks…

  10. The Blade Runner (@)
    30th January 2015, 11:08

    Shame about the nose. It look a little like a duck-billed platypus!

    1. The Blade Runner (@)
      30th January 2015, 11:09

      Apart from that I love it!

    2. i thought ironing board

      1. They’ve gone from a hoover to an ironing board. It looks much better than last year’s nose, which was one of the worst-looking on the grid for me.

    3. platypus?

      nah, its just sticking its tongue out.

      http://goo.gl/EiDIt0

  11. I was pretty satisfied with the McLaren solution until Ferrari followed it. Now, I’m pretty worried. Hopefully it was Allison’s and not someone else’s idea, because Ferrari have a record of having amazing chassis! Oh wait no!

    1. McLaren solution until Ferrari followed it? oh no I hope we don’t see another repeat of 2007 with Alonso testifying in court about McLaren stealing Ferrari plans again.

      1. That… would actually explain why Mclaren haven’t made a decent car in two years.

    2. @mashiat2 Actually, the Ferrari chassis last year was by no means bad, it was the engine that really let it down a lot.

      1. Correction, by few means bad (obviously it wasn’t exceptionally great either).

  12. It kind of looks like the 2009 BGP-001, but somehow it just looks…wrong. Maybe if the livery was the Brawn livery, it wouldn’t look as bad.

  13. It looks great! Any pictures of Vettel’s helmet?

    1. There is a glimpse of it during his personal interview on the release website.

  14. I love that white Alfa Romeo logo on the rear but I hate the fact that we won’t see it on the front of the nose of some F1 car…maybe never again..

  15. Beautiful. Most of this year’s cars are beautiful. People really find something to complain about in every car. It seems we are never satisfied but that’s just human nature I guess.

    1. they may badge it for the other teams, like Sauber Alfa Romeo, for example…

      1. That is actually a good idea. It could also be a different engine, a customer engine aimed at whomever the next ‘Marussia’ is, with a starter pack of sponsor logos.

        Speaking of logos, there is still the Marlboro triangle that is curved so slightly that it is only subliminally ‘Marlboro’ to people old enough to remember the 1990’s. I believe that Marlboro had a deal where they bought the advertising space on the car and then re-sold it. If this is still the deal then they must be minted as there is a smorgasbord of blue chip clients with their corporate logos on the car. If this was the only F1 car that you saw then you would believe that sponsors were easy to come by for F1. Particularly when Ferrari don’t win these days.

    2. Yeah, this one especially is beautiful!!

      I’m not a huge fan of the livery which they introduced last year (with all the black), which is largely unchanged, but the car itself looks great!

      I just hope it performs. I’d much rather see a not so pretty but fast Ferrari than one like this but with no performance. Time will tell!

    3. Good point. After last years “nose fiascos”, we should all be thankful for the relatively normal looking schnouts we’re seeing this time around! :)

      Imagine if they’d all decided that last years Caterham nose was the way to go! I think many could go blind looking at that much ugly in one place!

  16. Better than last year, but since 2008 i dont like new design of F1 car

    From 2009 only nice Ferrari for me is F138

  17. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    30th January 2015, 11:26

    Is that Vettel? So much photoshop, or he has gotten very old last year…older than Kimi.

  18. My condolences Sebastian.
    These guys have very little knowledge of exploiting the front wing design as efficiently as guys at Red Bull.
    Sorry Seb, patience allways pays off.

    1. Yeah it looks incredibly under debeloped in comparison to athe McLaren, in fact the whole car looks a lot less developed than the McLaren, but it might just be a different design philosophy.

  19. Note the outward-curving rear of the rear-wing

    1. Or is that the floor? can’t see properly

  20. Why is there an Alfa Romeo logo on it…was it there last year?

    1. no, last year it was FIAT

      this is mysterious for all

  21. First time there hasn’t been an Fiat logo on a Ferrari in a very long time.

    Also would be interesting what Enzo would’ve thought of an Alfa badge on a Ferrari.

    1. back to their roots? Afterall he ran the Alfa F1 team before starting to build his own cars!

    2. Enzo would definitely approve of having Alfa’s logos on his car. He always respected Alfa Romeo a lot and even said that: “Whenever I see Alfa Romeo driving by, I tip my hat.” So there you go. It’s a really nice homage to the roots of Ferrari.

      1. Or he was tipping his hat because he was so impressed that the Alfa was driving around and not broken down at the side of the road! ;)

  22. Does anyone know why Alfa Romeo is on the engine covers rather than Fiat.

    1. Alfa Romeo are a subsidiary of the Fiat Group, as are Ferrari. I can only presume they’d rather promote Alfas to the motorsport world than Fiats?

      1. @pukktpie @petey84 although one would think they would rather do both!

  23. Last years car was called the F14T – FIAT, they should have called this one the F15H – FISH changed the T (turbo) to H for (Hybrid)

  24. I just don’t understand how forcing cars to have a ramp that leads straight to the drivers head is safer. I’m seriously worried about what will happen if someone rear ends another car.

    1. I was thinking the same thing. The Mclaren and Ferrari nose will act like the flip-car in Fast 6 movie.

  25. Liam McShane (@)
    30th January 2015, 11:47

    They talk about how tightly packaged it is at the rear and yet it is still noticeably thicker than others.

    1. Exactly, it looks much fatter at the rear of the sidepods compared to the McLaren.

  26. The sloping nose seems to be the best, gradual and comfortable. Livery seems to be the most balanced so far. Good job.

  27. Damn i was rooting for silver. Or Grey -.-

  28. well, nose for me is not a problem and not the first thing I looked at when I saw these pics. What I looked at and and was again disappointing was the “pull-rod” suspension. It seems to be Ferrari’s “bad luck” charm. When are they going to switch to the same push-rod system the big boys run at the front?

    Looks like a year of 2 sensitive drivers struggling to get to grips with the pull-rod system. Another year for kimi of struggle, and no Vettel.

  29. Errr… what’s going on with the rear diffuser? They aren’t usually totally smooth or so high and there are no fins on it at all.

    1. They don’t wanna show details to competitors.

    2. they won’t show the real diffuser, we have to wait until the photographers get the long lenses out on sunday

      1. Yep…they consider those rear diffusers “state secrets” and hide those and the front wings till the last possible moment.

  30. I always liked those direct photo comparison between old and new car. Can we get it this time too @keithcollantine ?

  31. Ferrari was in fact one of the most famous successful teams in chassis design and aerodynamic last year. In tracks that required more aerodynamic and less power, Ferrari actually performed well, sometimes matching Red Bull’s pace. So I think they are going to do well with this chassis in 2015.

    I like this nose more than the “vacuum cleaner” last year, and their traditional red color is always astonishing!

  32. There is no Fiat logo on the car because Ferrari is being separated from Fiat/Chrysler and is floating 10% of Ferrari on the New York Stock Exchange for example.

    As for the Alfa logo, that is the brand that Fiat are trying to make resurgent at the moment, hence the advertising.

    Enzo would have been happy with the Alfa logo, as he raced for Alfa and had a very close relationship there. If you go to the new Ferrari museum in Modena, which is where Enzo’s house also is, you will find that there are many Alfas on display.

  33. Don’t quite like it! The nose is too long (compared to the general proportions of the car). Still… better than Williams, which I find to be the car with the ugliest nose.

  34. Most will have noticed the lack of parent company Fiat branding, which has been replaced, on the rear of the sidepods, with Alfa Romeo logos. Of course Alfa Romeo is also owned by Fiat but is focussed on more sportive cars than Fiat’s city cars – just think about the mighty 8c Competizione. Nonetheless, it looks a little weird when I think back to the Eighties when the two fought on track against each other…

  35. Odd nose but I quite like it. 2015 F1 cars are turning out to be quite nice so far.

  36. Vettel looks really young in the pictures, he should let his facial hair grow again.

    1. I think he looks more like he’s been sick and lost too much weight.

  37. I love the noses from an aesthetic point of view but I still cant fathom why FIA are allowing these ramps, I mean look at last year for example, Two sizeable shunts resulting with cars belly side up – Bahrain with Gutiérrez and Germany with Massa… My F1 memory isn’t the greatest but correct if me if I am wrong, but didn’t Ide get banned from F1 after flipping Albers, which I believe was the last flip caused by another driver? (exclude Kubice as that was tyre on tyre)

    1. Actually those two flips weren’t caused by the noses but by the tires colliding with one another. I think the noses are too low now because last year in Australia, Kobayashi ran into the back of Massa, lifting up Massa’s car.

      I really hope we don’t get an accident like that again or a repeat of Schumacher’s Abu Dhabi crash in 2010.

  38. Are the rims different from last year?

    1. Yes. See picture below. Front wheels only.
      http://ctrlv.cz/shots/2015/01/30/Tra7.png
      From left to right: F14-T, new Sauber, new Lotus, SF15-T

  39. Nice to see Ferrari have got rid of the Dyson style nose. Hopefully it means they don’t suck as much this year..

    I’ll get my coat.

    1. As one reader pointed out, this one looks like an ironing board. I wonder what home appliance the nose will look like next year…

  40. Beautiful car!

  41. Is it just me or does anyone else agree that RED does not suit Vettel

  42. Hard to tell with the lighting and the angle of the pics, but it looks like Ferrari have managed quite a good undercut on their sidepods. Tighter overall…if you can trust the angles in these pics to be giving us a good view.

  43. Are they going to lick their opponents to death this year?

  44. These noses are definitely looking better this year. a hint of the good old 89-90 cars in this one.
    Pity they’ve kept the nasty colour scheme. Is it black where they’re trying to hide some trick aero parts? (same applies to McLaren) And how long will Santander stay around as a Ferrari sponsor?

  45. Wow. She’s a looker!

  46. At first I was excited to see Vettel in his new overalls with his first Ferrari, but then I started to cringe as I realized how poorly the pictures are photoshopped. Those guys never sat on the actual wheels of that car, by the picture. and the one where they stand behind it? They appear to be cardboard cutouts, at best!

  47. Looking at a side by side view on another site of the F14T and this car it looks like Ferrari are running a lot more rake than the last few years…an Allison trait maybe?…or just an effort to get more downforce on the front of the car for both Vettel and Kimi?

  48. maybe a bit off-topic, but i noticed gutierrez doesn’t have his number 21 on his race suit. at what point can’t he call it his racing number? if he substitutes vettel or raikkonen, does he have to use whichever the ferrari reserve numbers are or can he use the 21 he was using last year? and what if a rookie would’ve wanted the 21, could he have it? i’m still unsure about the race numbers.

    1. This is just my guess, but I think he would have to use Ferrari’s reserve number.

  49. The shape reminds me of a lower version of the 1996 nose Ferrari ran later in the season. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Ferrari_F310_1996_Schumacher.jpg

  50. and Kimi not even smile!

  51. Just a thought, but WHAT IF..Ferrari really did purchase Marussia, and are going to use it as a “B” team and bring back the name Alfa Romeo to F1. Highly farfetched, but seeing an Alfa on the grid, maybe painted green like in ’84 and ’85, would be an awesome addition.

  52. Everyone is chatting about the nose. I’m no expert, but the rear end seems to have some unusual features. Is it just me or is there something very different going on in the rear aerodynamically?

    1. @get
      that’s not the rear they’ll race as they always hide that till the last possible second. This one is just for this showing.

  53. The front wing will not survive any race! It already looks as if it just wants to fall off before the car even moves. Thanks, Norris

  54. These new noses look much better than last year, although the Sauber looks “dangerous”, like a missile tip. Interesting to see the outcome of that nose t-boning a Mercedes sidepod!

  55. Until you start racing the most impressive part of the car is the ALFA ROMEO sticker..

  56. Well design looks good.. proper nose and trademark Red. What matters is how it performs on the track.. Worthy only if it is better than last years Farm Tractor (just kidding) :P ;)

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