- Ferrari
Ferrari challenges rivals to come up with F1 concept cars
Ferrari has challenged its rivals to design Formula One concept cars similar to the one it came up with earlier this month.
Ahead of crunch talks about the future direction of the sport, Ferrari released its vision for Formula One with two images of a stylised F1 car. It claimed the look could be achieved with minimal changes to the technical regulations, although later that day the F1 Commission voted not to make any regulatory changes to the aesthetics of the cars until 2017 at the earliest.
The concept car has been championed by Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, who has made clear his concerns about the decreasing popularity of F1.
"That car was a provocation," he said. "A provocation that is not far away from the reality we can achieve in the future. I'm expecting other teams to produce their own view because without talking about 'my car is better than yours' or 'we were doing this before you', this is crazy.
"I'm going to ask every team to try to produce a concept car. In this way we are going to move something, stabilise the situation as it is. That was a provocation.
"I said at the end of January when we unveiled the car, I said it looked sexy. Everybody talking about it said it looked sexy - it came out of the mouth like this. It was easy for me to say 'bella' or 'it's cool', that sentence came out of my heart from the mouth."
In recent years F1 has haemorrhaged TV figures in most of its key markets and staged races in front of half-empty grandstands. Arrivabene thinks it must vie for the attentions of teenagers and make the sport a more exciting product than the latest PlayStation or Xbox racing game.
"Other competitors we have are other cars on a video game," he added. "If you are asking to guys who are 18 years old if they prefer to play one hour on a video game, he'll prefer to do that than watch a grand prix. This is our competitor so the look of a car is very important."
Arrivabene also thinks F1 should provide a challenge to engineers, making reference to legendary Brabham and McLaren designer Gordon Murray.
"I was watching a programme where Gordon Murray was talking and his interpretation of design was quite interesting. One sentence he said was quite interested, he said 'I'm not sure I would enjoy my job with the rules of today because they are quite restrictive."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
