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The traditional
press conference held at the presentation of the new single-seater
that will compete in the Formula 1 world championship began
with the engineers who have developed the car over the past
months: Aldo Costa, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne.
Byrne opened and underlined how his role in the company was
changing. He was progressively filling a consultancy role
for all the new House of Maranello projects and, in
particular, regarding the engineering of the cars.
Then came Aldo Costa, creator of the 248 F1, to reflect on
Byrne's role and the characteristics of the car in detail.
He declared that: "it was mainly to do with the V8 engine
and we imposed a radical change from both a mechanical and
aerodynamic point of view. The aerodynamics are still at a
preliminary stage and will be until the first race of the
season. As regards the chassis, this is totally new, above
all in the centre section. We decided on this in order to
optimise the weight distribution and lighten the entire
structure. The same goes for the suspension, especially in
the completely redesigned rear end. The transmission too is
all new (though constructed from composite materials) and
also the differential. In building these two new elements in particular, we had to
pay close attention to the characteristics of the V8. The
greater vibrations generated by the engine brought more
initial problems", he added.
The gathered journalists then asked questions to which Brawn
replied that "from the midway point of last season when we
realised we could not challenge for the top spots, we began
concentrating more on development, especially the blend of
the aerodynamic configuration and the characteristics of the
new V8. |
