Ferrari expected to use Toyota’s wind tunnel for their new car’s testing
Ferrari recently revealed that they are not going to use their own wind tunnel technology for the development of their new car, the F150. Ferrari became the first team to unveil its 2011 car when the F150 was revealed on the 28th of
January. Rivals Red Bull Racing and Mercedes are going to reveal their respective cars on the 1st of February at the first pre-season test session in Valencia.
McLaren will launch its new car on the 4th of February after the first pre-season test session in Valencia ends.
Ferrari is eager to make some major aerodynamics changes during the season, and as a result, the team has decided to use Toyota’s facility rather than its own Maranello facility.
“There are some FOTA regulation restrictions in terms of expense - which is the cost for the framework, the number of people working in the team, the number of hours spent in the wind tunnel, and also the power of the server for
the CFD,” said Ferrari’s technical director Aldo Costa.
According to the RRA (Resource Restriction Agreement), the teams are allowed to spend more money if they outsource more and since Ferrari has chosen the Cologne facility of the former Toyota team, it is expected that Ferrari will
benefit a lot in the 2011 Formula 1 season.
“These are the four restrictions and the last two are connected – so it is up to the team how to spend money, how to employ people and where to work. We therefore decided to really focus on the work of the wind tunnel, and one
wind tunnel was not enough – we needed one and a little bit more,” added Costa.
Ferrari is expected to be at the top once again alongside Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes and the team vows that they will “rule out” all the mistakes they made in 2010.
Since the team has a driver like Fernando Alonso, fans are expecting a lot from them as well, and as a result, the team wants to ensure that they deliver the best possible package for both of their drivers.
“The Toyota tunnel is one of the commercial tunnels that is more state of the art, and that is why we have selected it,” said Costa.
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