Ferrari SF16-H: First pictures revealed

2016 F1 season

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The first pictures of the Ferrari SF16-H, the car they will use for the 2016 F1 season, have been revealed by the team.

Among the significant changes to the car are a shortened nose and a switch from pull-rod to push-rod front suspension – the latter a major departure from Ferrari’s recent design philosophy. The new car is also packaged much more tightly at the rear than its predecessor.

Sebastian Vettel, who won three races for the team last year, begins his second season as a Ferrari driver. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen is in his sixth season at the team.

“We had a fantastic year last year, my first season with the team, so naturally we all want more” said Vettel. Last year we finished second in the constructors’ championship so it’s only one more step, which is a difficult one to take, but hopefully this is one that helps us achieve it.”

Vettel believes the team has “improved in many areas when I came in more or less this time last year” but expects more from 2016.

“I think [last year] was a difficult time to really have some expectations, now we have had a better winter to prepare and therefore I think we will be a strong team as we have seen last year, but even stronger this year.”

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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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115 comments on “Ferrari SF16-H: First pictures revealed”

  1. Gavin Campbell
    19th February 2016, 13:07

    Thats one fugly livery

    1. yeeppp, i thought it would be a gold wheel

    2. Looks ugly in that pic. On the livestream it looks sweet. But I had to give up watching though, so much lag.

    3. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      19th February 2016, 13:21

      It really is pug-fugly, like its been designed by commitee.

      Also Vettel’s helmet is going to get lost in that white cockpit (if he goes for a white design again).

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        19th February 2016, 13:24

        Which he has a shown in the photos…. Durrr.

    4. the weird thing is it looks alright from the side and from the top. it almost feels like they designed it around those views and realized it doesn’t really work when put together.

      1. it works great, you are over analyzing.

      2. FlyingLobster27
        19th February 2016, 14:50

        I agree. The livery looks nicely organised for those static head-on shots, but chaotic when you move around a bit. It looks nothing like the 70s.
        It’s still red though. I do wonder how long it’ll be before they “bring back the 60s”, and by that, I mean the NART livery, just so they can finally join the greyscale club.

      3. Gavin Campbell
        19th February 2016, 15:09

        I’ve figured out whats bothering me about it, its the red on the little shark fin tale – it just looks so wrong. An all-white airbox would of been much better.

        I also probably wouldn’t have any white on the underside of the nose and the bargeboards. We’re in an era of clean design graphically (in general I mean) so its quite at odds to see something so busy I think.

    5. It is. It’s worse than I though after Giorgio Piola’s drawings.

      I particularly hate the while at the bottom. And the black on the engine cover. They tried to replicate the 312T apparently, but they did a very bad job.

    6. They should’ve stuck to white or black. This is way too busy.

    7. Formula 1 will continue to be ugly because it is shaped by a rule written by committee to produce a car overly focused on aerodynamic downforce for high speed corners, rather than for overall handling, balance, and mechanical grip. It will become progressively more irrelevant and boring and lose fan-base until something is done with the rules, including spreading the money around the teams.

    8. I think it is fantastic. You get a better idea in this video.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ3xVNdHZ2A&feature=youtu.be

  2. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    19th February 2016, 13:09

    Two lessons to learned here:

    #1 Make a server that handle a live stream to more than three people

    #2 Don’t make Kimi act

    1. Kimi wont get the Oscar anyway

    2. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
      19th February 2016, 13:13

      #3 That James Allison should host all official team events

    3. The italian stream is fine :)

      1. Yes, the Italian stream was working better but I couldn’t get half the words…

  3. The nosee!!! something comes in my mind ….doohhhh

  4. Hmmm. Looks too ‘busy’, it’s not a pretty car. But I get a feeling it’ll be much better than last years.

    1. It does look pretty from the top though.
      The rear section seems neatly tucked in immediately after the power unit before flaying out towards the back. I wonder if the 2015 car was as tight as this one is in the rear.

      1. This car is more tighter than 2015 challenger, for sure. Lets hope it can challenge W07

    2. Having compared the new car with the former, the new has a more aerodynamic and well packaged rear. I do like the flow. Now, that’s a sexy rear end – almost lady-like.

  5. ALee from Birmingham
    19th February 2016, 13:11

    Don’t forget the Kimi pic, introduced as Sebastian Vettel. Haha :D

  6. It’s a nice looking car, shame about the horrifying livery.

  7. Looks okay, not fond of the new nose but overall, it looks better than the F2012 and F14T.

    1. On second thoughts, the livery was better on the F2012 and the F14T had a slightly better looking nose. No, I think that the SF16-H looks ‘fugly’ as many people have said. Silly name too.

      1. better for you, but I like this one better, and I like the name, the H signified Hybrid, so why not? as for the nose shape, it is not about looks but about performance, it will be better remembered then the 2 you mentioned, you will see.

      2. @ultimateuzair

        the F14T had a slightly better looking nose

        What? You liked the squashed hoover nozel look?

        Silly name too.

        The 2014 car looked like ‘FIAT’. The 2015 spelled FIST. The 2016 car looks like FISH!

        1. @optimaximal I never said that I liked the F14T’s nose. It doesn’t look nice. I just think that it looks slightly better than the even more unpleasant nose of the SF16-H, which is a bit of a mouthful to be honest.

        2. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
          20th February 2016, 13:51

          @optimaximal they missed the chance to name this car F16HT

  8. The livery is quite busy but it may well grow on me. At least it is something new and different, a bit of a nod to the past.

    It’s probably no surprise they have gone for the thumb nose, there is performance there by all accounts. Looks like they may have been able to slim the sidepods even more this year.

    1. Interesting to note also that they seem to have nicked Singha as a sponsor from Red Bull.

      1. They did. It’s been listed in the official title for a while, even

    2. Colours do look busy but overall it looks busy as it has more sponsors on it than other teams especially McLaren. Bet Ron would love a busy sponsor filled livery.

      1. Bet Ron would love a busy sponsor filled livery.

        Obviously he doesn’t, otherwise he’d cut the price to something reasonable for a team in the doldrums!

        1. OK Ron would love a busy sponsor covered livery if they paid as much as Ferrari can get for them.

  9. digitalrurouni
    19th February 2016, 13:19

    Hate the nose but I like it overall! better than the Red Bull if you ask me!

  10. the coke bottle is soooooo slim

  11. Gavin Campbell
    19th February 2016, 13:21

    Looks like we are having stupid little stubby finger noses on the end of Ferrari’s old Hoover Nose from 2014 this season.

    Also did they have a game to see how many colours they could cram into a Ferrari livery at every possible point :P

  12. alfa-romeo label on ferrari car)

  13. I like the idea of hearkening back to the 70s, but the execution is ugly. Fugly, in fact.

  14. It feels like the different features of the design don’t flow into eachother.

    The pic from above looks good, the “scuderia” logo seems like a sticker put together at the last moment

  15. It’s funny, I’ve been watching F1 only quite recently, and I’ve always wondered “how would it look like if Ferrari adds a little white to their cars?” Never thought I would actually see it though.

    I like the livery, the nose isn’t as good-looking as last year but as somebody already mentioned this nose brings much more performance advantages. In fact I think the reason they couldn’t introduce this nose last year is that it didn’t pass the crash test.

    Hope this car can bring the fight to Mercedes!

    1. have a search on google of old f1 Ferrari cars like the 1976 one, they used a lot of white and it looked great, this one reminds me of the old ones.

  16. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    19th February 2016, 13:24

    I like the livery. It has been intelligently designed and the white patches nicely accentuate some of the curves across the engine cover, and the joyous white curves down the front bulkhead. I also like the patches of naked carbon.

    I think it is a thoroughly decent looking car, and it is nice that Ferrari actually put some effort into its launch.

    1. Well said. I liked some elements of the design but couldn’t articulate them as well as you did. I agree with others that it is challenging but I think people will grow to like it.

    2. I agree, it’s maybe not a stunner but it’s fresh and not repulsive. I think it might come together with a driver sitting in it too.

  17. I’ve just spotted the Mexican sponsors are still on the car, so I presume Claro are going to be sponsoring three teams now?

    1. Sorry, I meant “official site”

  18. I like it. The only thing that looks a bit odd is the Ferrari logo placement. Unlike the Mercedes and the Williams, this is quite clearly revolution over evolution, so it will be very interesting to see where this car stacks up. The car seems very James Allison as well just by looking at the wings and other aero parts, which is by no means a bad thing.

  19. Pretty much as expected in terms of livery. Loved the 2015 car btw. It had a great bright red colour so not a big fan of this.

    The rear seems much more tightly packaged than last year!

  20. Wow I really like that. Looks like they’ve gone for revolution rather than evolution as the design is totally different from last year’s car. Very tight packaging of the rear, and the gearbox seems raised up with a step underneath to the floor. Presumably to give added space for the diffuser. I see they’ve also finally ditched the front pullrod setup which seemed to cause so many problems to get right.

    Certainly looks the part. But the most important bit in terms of how competitive they will be this year is the bit lurking underneath that white hump on the back.

  21. At first I wasn’t sure but now I really like it, especially from the side. Will make a final decision when it’s out on track!

    It’s nice to see a change in livery though but equally I’m glad Williams didn’t change theirs much (if not at all) as it was one of the best looking cars last year!

  22. is the H for Horrible? Nasty lumpy shape, plastered with irrelevant logos and one of Ferrari’s worst colour schemes ever. I hope they win nothing with this.

  23. It’s not quite as bad-looking as F14T… But not far away. Blah :/

  24. Hate this livery! Ferrari should be red(ideally blood red) with some black added for meanness. This car doesn’t look aggressive and mean. It looks like a herbivore. Reminds me of Toyota’s livery and of Toyota in general. not a good association for a Ferrari, let alone Ferrari F1

    1. I wonder if the white was added to accommodate Hass.

      1. Duncan Snowden
        19th February 2016, 16:38

        Heh. Probably not, but watch out for Haas revealing a white livery with a red engine cover, and red, white, and blue stripes round the airbox.

        (Actually, now I say it, it’s alarmingly plausible… we know from pictures of Haas’s HQ that it’s mainly white; red over the Ferrari engine, and the stripes to show that it’s an “American Ferrari”, not the Italian one. Oh, please let me be wrong…)

        1. Either Ferrari are paying homage to the 312T(pretty certain they are) or they’ve seen the Haas team livery and went, Oh boy. We need to change our livery boys, Aha.

          1. @aceace Oh I’m sure they did it as a homage to the seventies livery. And, as many other things from the 70’s, it should have stayed there. It was fugly then and it is fugly now. They should have paid homage to the 312T by replicating it’s dominant performance, not its awful paintjob

  25. Livery is fine, I like some 70’s white Lauda-style. Too bad with finger-nose, but i guess it’s just better for aero.

  26. Drivers aren’t allowed to change their helmet designs, but Ferrari are allowed to change their chassis naming patterns every year?

    1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      19th February 2016, 14:10

      I think drivers can change their helmets every year, they just have to be consistent for the season.

      After having the the FIAT, and the S-FIST, is anyone else a tad disappointed that this years chassis name isn’t funny?

      1. it looks like ‘FISH’…

    2. @jackysteeg Uh, why not? Only nerds like us even know that the chassis have names.

      1. Tongue firmly in cheek there. I wasn’t seriously suggesting the FIA should mandate chassis names…

  27. I personally think it is beautiful and a great mix of retro and modern design plus the car looks great in it.

  28. The only thing that looks AWESOME is that new helmet design for Kimi!!!

    1. Maybe he can even put up a smile this year.

  29. Hands down the ugliest livery I’ve seen in 20+ years I’ve been following F1. Whole bunch of everything thrown together on a pile.
    Even their own F1 team logo looks horribly out of place on their own livery. It’s like it was slapped on by a kid who just discovered Photoshop and the drop-shadow effect.

    1. Have you seen McLaren liveries?

      1. The only ugly McLaren liveries in the past 10 years were in 2014 and 2015, which is pretty much the same as Ferrari. However, this year’s Ferrari is extremely ugly.

      2. Last two McLaren liveries might have been a bit bland, but they were not aesthetically bad. They looked professional and made sense. This Ferrari livery looks like someone’s kid had a bit of a fun with some color-within-the-lines kinda thing.

        1. Of course looks are in the eye of the beholder so that this years Ferrari livery is terrible is not a fact. Even as a huge Ferrari fan I will say it is challenging. For me however every McLaren ever made has had an ugly livery.

    2. Paying respect to the 312T. It looks fine. Should have made the Italian stripes bigger though, that’s the only flaw I see.

  30. My OCD is going mad;

    SF16-H
    SF-15T
    F14T
    F138
    F2012

    Argh!

    1. I feel your pain. I hate the names too. Even McLaren does a better job.

  31. Oh.

    Just, oh.

  32. livery is a hark back to the 312T series livery if the mid 70s. might grow on me but for the moment is a bit of a shock. nose stolen off williams!

  33. Williams nose and shabby livery. Not impressed .

  34. Fudge Ahmed (@)
    19th February 2016, 14:23

    I think the livery looks great. Every single livery seems to get comments about too much black, not enough colour, too much of one colour etc etc, it’s just amusing now.

    That rear packaging looks insanely tight, rivalling the Mclaren!

    1. Damned if you do damned if you don’t. People have been moaning Williams are not changing the livery but if they did everyone would say they like the older version. Ferrari change then everyone likes the older one, if they kept the same then they say it is boring. Same as fans with LMP1 as all the cars have similar liveries.

      The nose is more like the post Spanish GP Red Bull nose than Williams, look how far back and high it goes without the bit in the middle.

    2. I said the same before I took my medicine.

  35. Not look like ferrari, but chip ganassi car..lol

  36. *Clears throat*

    I absolutely love it! That retro 70’s call-back just seals the deal for me.

    *Runs away*

  37. Rear end comparison of 2016 Car with 2015 one. A lot tighter and curvy.

    Ferrari F1 2016

  38. Bit of a missed opportunity there… Retro idea, but the execution is anything but! What’s made it worse is that both the RB and Williams liveries we’ve had revealed have been, whether you’re a fan or not, very nicely considered!

    They seem to have gone with revolution rather than evolution anyway. If it’s revolution rather than evolution, which it appears, let’s hope something has changed to Kimi’s liking along the way. The change in front suspension layout may just do that.

  39. first off, who cares about the livery. The livery will not win a championship. Is anyone not more interested in what they did to the car to make it a contender for the championship this year?

    1. Ferrari did not buy into the open hubs to direct turbulent air through the center of the wheel like Red Bull and Torro Rosso has.
    2. They finally have the short nose so more air can get to the back of the car.
    3. the back floor looks is more visible meaning the much tighter packaged engine!
    4. push-rod suspension! ( I think that is big big big) especially for allowing the car to turn better and have easier front setup. Both Kimi and Seb prefer this!
    5. I know they moved engine components around as well like gearbox, turbo, etc lower in the car to allow lower center of gravity and tighter packaging.

    So I am quite excited, I think they have the right recipe to give it a serious go this year!

    again, livery for me means nothing.

  40. Not very subtly hidden Marlboro logo on the engine cover…

    1. In fact I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I reckon Ferrari will get their collars tugged over this. I predict that they’ll be made to change it.

  41. Personally I don’t like the white on the car; I think black and red it a better colour combination (which they used in 2013-2015). However, the white looks great on the drivers’ suits. Very race-like.

  42. Damn. That’s one messy, hideous livery. Worst Ferrari paint-job in a long time.

  43. These live shots have a quality as if they were taken with a landline phone! XD
    https://www.racefans.net/2016/02/19/ferrari-sf16-h-first-pictures-revealed/screenshot-2016-02-19-13-08-31/

  44. a picture is worth a thousand words

    http://i.imgur.com/dgNL2jK.gif

  45. I hate that dog tongue in front

  46. It’s a mess.

  47. I’m not doing very well in being with the popular opinion at the moment! I love the Renault livery, after all! So I suppose I have to apologise when I say that this is the nicest looking Ferrari paint job I have ever seen!

  48. I reckon Phillip Morris AKA Marlboro have demanded that the car subliminally look more like the marlboro red packet

  49. I don’t know if anybody mentioned it already (lot’s of comments) but this livery, with red and white, reminds of the old Scuderia Italia team, that many people referred to simply as Dallara…
    Main reason? they always looked similar to Ferrari, with same red colour, simply had more white on the top of the car. Just like the SF16-H ;)

  50. Please remove that white and also change the nose!

  51. I love the white engine cover.

  52. The paint design on the engine cover is just awful :( it should be all white or all red, not half white with awkward red bits and horrible black shapes that seperates it from the side pods..WHO designs these liveries :/

    1. @scuderia29
      I’m not sure they are even designed. It looks as if someone from the upper management was standing over the shoulder of their 10-year old nephew who knows the basics of photoshop, and telling them to move things around. As a professional designer, who has been a beginner and who knows a lot of beginners now, there’s no chance that anyone who is a designer for more than a year could come up with something as horrible as this. It’s not just that it has too much white, it’s that the shapes don’t make sense. The lines start and end abruptly with no reason, white and black areas tapper in and out without any logic to it, and on top of it all, that Scuderia Ferrari logo looks incredible amateurish.

      1. Remember this is the team that used the incredibly ugly barcode subliminal Marlboro logo. This whole livery has been cunningly designed to create an “accidental” Marlboro chevron, this is why it looks messy. The red spine stripe abrupt end, the black bar intersecting the team logo. There is no doubt Phillip Morris tobacco is behind this livery design.

        I hope the advertising standards people of each gp country realise this and force Ferrari to change it, just like when they had to remove the barcode.

  53. The best looking car so far.

  54. Does anyone know how/why Ferrari are still getting away with what is quite blatantly Marlboro sponsorship in 2016?

    We all know that Philip Morris is still a major backer, and even in the days where you never see tobacco adverts and even the products themselves are hidden in little cupboards, everyone knows that’s quite clearly a Marlboro-themed paint-job…again.

    I personally don’t have an issue with tobacco advertising. If an advert can convince you to do anything you deserve everything you get, but tobacco advertising has been banned in F1 for between 10 and 35 years (depending on country) so how are they getting away with it?

    I know it’s not blatant, but you could argue it’s “subliminal” which if anything is more illegal.

  55. In 20 years time people will be saying they wish Ferrari went back to their classic 2016 livery. They will attempt it and everyone will say it’s wrong and not like the original 2016 livery. I almost forgot but I think in 2002 the car introduce a mainly white engine cover and had loads of white on the rear and front wings.

    It’s growing on me, anything Ferrari the world has an opinion on as they are so important and the loudest people are the anti Ferrari brigade who just have to have a negative thing to say, same with their roadcars but over time their designs are more loved y the majority than any of the other lesser teams or car makers. It must be hard having to come up with a design with so many sponsors to appease but McLaren mess their designs up with no sponsors to consider as no one wants to sponsor them even when advertising space on the Ferrari would cost more as they are the biggest name in F1.

    1. Well said man. Every year there are some pathetic negative nancies who just have to say something bad about the new Ferrari, no matter how it looks. So nothing new or surprising here. I personally have always loved the way Ferraris look and this SF16-H is no exception. I really like the “retro” livery, it looks awesome. Hopefully the car will be fast as well.

  56. Doesn’t look like a Merc beater

  57. Am I the only one who thinks this car is a thing of beauty? Love the extra white parts!!

  58. look at that front wing, it looks like a folded leaf… :)

  59. If anything, it reminds me of the white the cars had in the Marlboro/Vodafone days of 2002-2006. The only difference at this point is the actual roll hoop structure being white instead of red and the front element of the front wing being red instead of white. Oh, and it’s about 20 times as busy.

    The studio pictures look horrible, but the snaps I’ve seen from the filming day inspire more hope. Same goes for the Williams, the studio pictures look dull, but I quite enjoy the Williams on screen.

    It’s a far more conventional F1 car than any Ferrari since their 2011 car, let’s just hope it’s a step up and not one of the famous side-steps Ferrari have been doing for years now…

  60. I feel like ferrari are going to adopt the mercedes esque nose by the time melbourne rolls around.

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