Car blogs

• Ferrari unveil their F2012, a car 'with many novelties'
• Team principal admits F1 car is 'not really so pretty'

Ferrari have set their sights on "winning right from the beginning" after taking the wraps off their 2012 Formula One car this morning.

The Italian team unveiled their new challenger online after being forced to cancel their official launch day due to heavy snowfall in Maranello, their north Italian base.

The team claims the F2012 boasts a "fundamentally revised" design from their 2011 car, which in the hands of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa – both of whom are retained for this year – managed one victory and third place in the constructors' championship last season.

"I am sure our car will be winning right from the beginning," Ferrari's team principal, Stefano Domenicali, said. "We have learned many lessons from the past and taken some difficult decisions. But I am sure all our efforts will be represented with this car.

"From a technical point of view, we have many novelties in terms of mechanics and also the shape of the car. We wanted continuity here, and hopefully we will reach the right performance."

While the car adheres to new rules regarding the position of the exhaust pipes and engine mapping, the most striking feature of the F2012 is its "platypus" nose, a design which caused a stir when Caterham revealed a similar concept last week.

McLaren, one of Ferrari's key rivals, succeeded in circumventing the need to create a step in the nose in order to meet new FIA restrictions on the height of that area of the car, but Ferrari's new technical director, Pat Fry, has elected to forgo style in pursuit of substance.

In their official press release, Ferrari admitted the design was "not aesthetically pleasing", but Domenicali insisted he was only concerned with the car's performance.

"Actually it's not really so pretty from my personal perspective, but this is a value that doesn't count in F1," he said. "These choices are from both technical regulation constraints and the choices to try to maximise the performance of the car. The fact that it's ugly or very nice doesn't count a lot, the most important thing is the car has to be performing."

Although the fundamental design is unlikely to change between now and the first race of the season in Australia on 18 March, Ferrari revealed that the car would "undergo a very intensive development programme over the first part of the season, especially on the aerodynamic front".

The heavy snow that forced the cancellation of today's launch also meant the abandonment of a planned shakedown of the car at the team's Fiorano test track.

Assuming there is no let-up in the weather, it is therefore likely the F2012's maiden run will be at the first official test of the year, beginning in Jerez on Tuesday.FerrariFormula OneFormula One 2012Motor sport
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