Ferrari: 2021 F1 concept “looks like an old Champ Car”

2021 F1 season

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Formula 1’s concept car design for the 2021 season has failed to impress Ferrari.

Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene told media at the official FIA press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix on Friday his engineers can been underwhelmed by the proposed changes to the cars in three years’ time.

“I was looking at the car presented a couple of days ago by Ross [Brawn, F1 motorsport managing director], he said. It’s a good exercise.

“I was asking our engineers what they thought about this, they said it’s a bit underwhelming in their opinion and it looks like an old Champ Car.”

F1 presented three concept designs for the 2021 season yesterday. Arrivabene did not specify which he was referring to.

The Champ Car series ceased racing in 2008. It used a single-specification Panoz DP01 chassis during its final full season the year before. Ferrari presented its own concept of a future F1 car three years ago (images below).

Brawn said one of the top priorities of the new design was to create better-looking cars. Others have given a positive first reaction to the design, including Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

2007-08 Champ Car

Neel Jani, PKV, Champ Car, Long Beach, 2007
Neel Jani, PKV, Champ Car, Long Beach, 2007

Ferrari future F1 car concept (2015)

Ferrari future F1 car rendering
Ferrari future F1 car rendering

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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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19 comments on “Ferrari: 2021 F1 concept “looks like an old Champ Car””

  1. They don’t look ‘underwhelming’ in my view.

  2. And I do not see what makes them “looks like an old Champ Car”.

    Any hints welcomed.

    1. Maybe the front wing, but otherwise no idea.

  3. Aren’t some ”old champ car(s)” (ie a 90’s Reynard) considered some of the most aesthetically pleasing race cars ever built?

    1. Yeh but they are terribly slow for an F1 car.

  4. I don’t like the concepts in principle, because it is function following form which is the antithesis of F1.

    This is beauty:

    And this is an interesting modern take on that:

    1. That Eagle is the prettiest thing ever. Would have looked better on slicks though.

    2. Such a beauty indeed!

  5. Power, grip and driveability should dictate the shape and aerodynamics in my opinion.
    That said I like the look of these concepts well enough I suppose.
    Lets just get fast cars that can give us good close racing and not get hung up on looking cool huh?

  6. Engineers want to do simply that – engineer things.

    Listen to them and we’ll have something akin to fighter jets on the ground, with zero possibility for following and overtaking.

    The concepts look fantastic, I say. I hope they can deliver on their stated aim of improving the racing.

    1. Engineers just solve the problem the best they can. Their goal is the make the fastest car that is still inside the rules. It is the job of the rulemaker to make sure the rules are good. Which is also an engineering problem.

      1. @socksolid Absolutely, that’s why I’m happy that Brawn is in charge for that matter. Because if the engineers can build the fastest car AND make life harder for the others to follow their car they won’t hesitate.

  7. I don’t get the reference to the Champ car whatsoever, and I like all three concepts presented yesterday much more than that Ferrari rendering above.

    1. @robbie and with such covering of wheels I wonder whether this can still be named an ‘open’ wheel car. They’ll just end up scraping each other like in rallycross. I do like the double front wing however.

  8. I like the Ferrari future F1 car rendering.

  9. Like others here, I don’t get the reference. But I watched the press conference and a lot of what Maurizio said didn’t make sense, at least to me, not just this sound bite about the renders.

  10. I don’t see the old Champ Car design much in these concepts. If anything, they remind me of the Formula X car in Project Cars 2.

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