248 F1 launch in Mugello

Mugello, 24 January 2006

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 differeential. In building these two new elements in particular, we had to pay close attention to the characterisitcs of the V8. The greater vibrations generated by the engine brought more initial problems".

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.

Despite the progress that the Bridgestone tyres have made with the reintroduction of tyre changes, we expect to see lap times that are a second or two slower than last year". In conclusion, and related again to the tyre issue, Brawn responded to newsprint journalists and emphasised how having Bridgestones this year would be an advantage as they will supply four teams. Now the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro would be able to compare development and the progress being made with other Bridgestone teams".