Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari has found “clever solutions” with its new Formula 1 car, the SF1000, with Mattia Binotto asserting the squad has adopted some “extreme concepts.”
Ferrari finished runner-up to Mercedes for a third straight season in 2019 and claimed nine pole positions, but converted only three of them into race victories.
It held a season-long power advantage but struggled on more downforce-dependent circuits, a trait it improved upon with an update it brought to the Singapore Grand Prix.
Ferrari unveiled its SF1000 on Tuesday evening, with both Vettel and team boss Binotto keen to highlight the work undertaken in improving the packaging of the car, focusing on improving its aerodynamic ability.
“[When you look at the] back part of the car everything sits a lot tighter,” said Vettel.
“We found some clever solutions to be able to achieve that. I can’t wait to drive it, as that’s more exciting than looking at it, one more week to wait, it’s fantastic.
“It’s also a little bit more red than last year so I think it looks great.”
Binotto, entering his second season as Ferrari’s Team Principal, asserted that the squad has adopted “extreme concepts” in its quest to overhaul Mercedes at the front of the field.
“Certainly the regulations have remained stable so it is difficult really to transform completely the car,” said Binotto.
“The starting point of that car is the SF90, but certainly we have been extreme on all the concepts as much as we could.
“We develop the car to look for maximum aero performance, maximise the downforce level, so the entire car, the monocoque, the power unit layout, the gearbox, has been really packaged in a way to have a slim and narrow body shape, I think that’s really visible on it.
“We worked on all of the components, the suspension has been designed to have greater flexibility on the race track, for the set-up, trying to adapt the set-up to whatever suits the drivers, whatever is the circuit.
“We worked a lot on the power unit not only for packaging but we worked on each single component, for performance but also to cope with the changing technical regulations, with the oil consumption reduced by 50 per cent.
“It may look very similar to last year but believe me it’s completely different to the one of last year and a lot of concepts are very extreme on that car.”