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Ferrari's chief designer has been forced to defend his new car after it was instantly denounced as the ugliest Ferrari ever.
Ferrari launched the new car on Friday to howls of derision from across the world of motorsport, with Gazzetta dello Sport's Paolo Ianieri describing the car as: "The ugliest Ferrari ever! Let's hope it is fast."
Fans also took to internet message boards and Twitter, with many calling it 'atrocious' and 'just awful'.
Plenty of wags got in their barbed comments too, with one suggesting the car be renamed the 'Ferrari Prost' in reference to former French driver Alain Prost's infamous Roman nose.
And Twitter user drewdraws2 summed it up nicely: "It's not that Ferrari's new F2012 is ugly – it's just that they accidentally released photos of the Lego version first."
But Ferrari's design chief Nikolas Tombazis has defended the look of his new creation, explaining that new rules in the sport forced his hand.
The new regulations for 2012 that force the front section of the nose to be low down - while teams desire the chassis section to be higher up - have led to a number of outfits featuring dramatic step changes around that area of the car.
Ferrari's solution on the F2012 is the most extreme seen so far, but Tombazis does not agree with comments that the new car does not look good.
"There have been some rumours saying that this car is ugly and I have to confess that I am not objective on that, as I don't share that opinion," said Tombazis in a video interview broadcast on Ferrari's website.
"For me I have got used to the bump on the nose. I think the rest of the car has been the fruit of a lot of detail work.
"Ultimately, as far as I am concerned, an ugly car is one that doesn't win and a beautiful car is one that does win. So, for now, I want to believe it is a beautiful car and we will have to review that after the first few races."
Tombazis has promised that the Ferrari is also likely to feature a lot of upgrades before the opening race in Melbourne, with a particular focus in pre-season testing on defining its exhaust configuration.
"This car is still destined to change quite a lot before the first race," he said. "We have been working in the wind tunnel and the design office on aerodynamic upgrades of the car - but we also have some very important experiments we want to carry out in the first tests so we can finalise the first race configuration." Source: Yahoo! Sport
Ferrari launched the new car on Friday to howls of derision from across the world of motorsport, with Gazzetta dello Sport's Paolo Ianieri describing the car as: "The ugliest Ferrari ever! Let's hope it is fast."
Fans also took to internet message boards and Twitter, with many calling it 'atrocious' and 'just awful'.
Plenty of wags got in their barbed comments too, with one suggesting the car be renamed the 'Ferrari Prost' in reference to former French driver Alain Prost's infamous Roman nose.
And Twitter user drewdraws2 summed it up nicely: "It's not that Ferrari's new F2012 is ugly – it's just that they accidentally released photos of the Lego version first."
But Ferrari's design chief Nikolas Tombazis has defended the look of his new creation, explaining that new rules in the sport forced his hand.
The new regulations for 2012 that force the front section of the nose to be low down - while teams desire the chassis section to be higher up - have led to a number of outfits featuring dramatic step changes around that area of the car.
Ferrari's solution on the F2012 is the most extreme seen so far, but Tombazis does not agree with comments that the new car does not look good.
"There have been some rumours saying that this car is ugly and I have to confess that I am not objective on that, as I don't share that opinion," said Tombazis in a video interview broadcast on Ferrari's website.
"For me I have got used to the bump on the nose. I think the rest of the car has been the fruit of a lot of detail work.
"Ultimately, as far as I am concerned, an ugly car is one that doesn't win and a beautiful car is one that does win. So, for now, I want to believe it is a beautiful car and we will have to review that after the first few races."
Tombazis has promised that the Ferrari is also likely to feature a lot of upgrades before the opening race in Melbourne, with a particular focus in pre-season testing on defining its exhaust configuration.
"This car is still destined to change quite a lot before the first race," he said. "We have been working in the wind tunnel and the design office on aerodynamic upgrades of the car - but we also have some very important experiments we want to carry out in the first tests so we can finalise the first race configuration." Source: Yahoo! Sport
