Ferrari F2002

Designer: Rory Byrne
Drivers: Michael Schumacher (1), Rubens Barrichello (2)

Just like any other Ferrari in the early 2000's, the F2002 proved to be a true masterpiece where no other team was really able to give an answer to. The car was introduced at the Brazilian GP of 2002 and driven by Michael Schumacher. As there was only one available, team mate Rubens Barrichello had to wait until the GP of San Marino to get to race the F2002. Ferrari continued to race the car for 4 races in 2003 before the Ferrari F2003-GA was introduced at Spain.

The most dominating car in Formula one was the MP4/4 Mclaren, driven by Prost and Senna. Together they gathered 199 points in the constructors championship, winning 15 of 16 races. But that was until 2002. At that time, Ferrari gurus Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne came up with the magnificent F2002. An overview of what actually causes the speed difference in 2002 between Ferrari... and the rest of the field.

The beginning

Pre season testing had revealed the enormous potential of the new F2002, breaking the Maranello track record with more than a second at its first attempt. Nonetheless, the new car will not be used in the first couple of Grand Prix, due to possible reliability problems. The Ferrari F2001 had proven to be a worthy championship winner, and counting on the experience with the car, the new F2002 would not appear until the Brazilian Grand prix. For his teammate Rubens Barrichello, it would even take a grand prix more before he could show the speed of the new car.

The team has been making some astounding cars the last couple of years, but this is beyond everything. But what is actually the secret behind the this Ferrari. There is actually no such thing as "the secret to success" in formula one, but it are a lot a specialties that have empowered this car to make Schumacher become the earliest world champion ever.

Weight decrease

Ferrari have been busy all winter to decrease their overall weight, and thus increase the mass they can move in the car to mprove its balance. Ferrari introduced new front and rear uprights cast in metal matrix (carbon fibre and Aluminium). They are 900g each as apposed to cast Titanium at 1.1kg. Double the price of cast titanium and more complex to manufacture.

Ferrari had since the beginning of the season a titanium gearbox, after Minardi had introduced that. The advantages of the new gearbox are the weight, but there is also an increased stiffness and thereby it can be made smaller. Later in the season, an all titanium block was made to include the differential, gearbox and engine into one solid block by removing the heavy bell housings. There were also plans to use the electro-hydraulic differential instead to be used in performing the functions of a clutch. With such a system, the car would be able to accelerate much faster at higher revs when the clutch had been removed. Without the strain and mass from the rotating parts within the clutches, the engine would evolve nearly a second faster.

Low side pods

The most talked about were certainly the extremely low side pods that cannot be seen at any of the other f1 cars in 2002. To achieve this, together with a very narrow coke bottle shape to suck air onto the diffuser between the rear wheels, a first change were the radiators. The usually vertically placed oil and water radiators are positioned to steep forward to the upper and outmost part. This allows for the upper side to be at first maybe 5 centimeters lower, but it is also allows to steep the upper side of the side pod down earlier than in the other way. The little angle from the radiators seen from a top view of the car, are to tighten the coke bottle shape and increase airflow on the diffuser and rear wing.

Secondly, the engine exhausts have also changed considerably since the F2001. That car came together with the high exhausts, spitting the hot gases out above the side pods upwards, instead of at the diffuser in the rear center of the car. The F2002 changed that part of exhaust history again, now pushing air out a little further away from the rear wing, but more importantly, backwards, and not upwards like in 2001. The exhaust pipe is covered with a 'fin' that also functions as an air outlet. The fact that these two are put out together, makes, thanks to a local low pressure area after that fin, 'suck' the gases out of the car, thereby helping each other to flow faster, and thus lowering engine temperatures.

Because of these extremely low sloping side pods, a lot more undisrupted air can flow directly over the side pods towards the rear wing, which makes it considerably more efficient. This increased performance, together with the smaller coke bottle shape from all cars in 2002, makes this car generating a very high downforce on the rear wheels. That the suspension arms have hereby come into the main airflow, is no real objection, as the resistance of these aerodynamically formed bars is of no importance relative to the advantages of the side pod construction.

Other changes

The front wing of the car hasn't changed a lot, neither compared to the F2001, neither during the season's development. It is a two part wing, where the F2001's consisted of three flaps. Some small corners have been cut out at the end of the wing, and at the underside of the wing are the air deviators, guiding air towards the brake ducts.

The nose cone has been raised since last year. It's flat and downwards from the cockpit to the top, where in the F2001, there the nose was some kind of a bowl, first upwards until the front wheel suspension, and then steeply down. This was possible thanks to a more compact front suspension system.

The cockpit area is the most advanced one from 2002. First of all, the cockpit's 'collar' at both sides of the driver's helmet are shaped relatively thin, but more importantly, the distance between the bonnet and the 'collar' is kept free, so that the air can flow by aside the cockpit's helmet, without having to undergo too much bumps and resistance (not considering the helmet, as this is a constant factor on all F1 cars). Seen the driver from aside his car, you can see that M. Schumacher is quite deep in his cockpit, and has a head support that is a continuation of the driver's helmet towards the rear of the car, directing the airflow passing the helmet as good as possible. This enables a good airflow towards the air inlet above the helmet, and limits turbulence to a minimum. The importance of this can be illustrated by Nigel Mansell, who had his seat removed in the late 80's to sit a few cm's lower, and that resulted in an extra downforce of 25kg, without any other changes, and even not considering the lowered center of gravity.

The rear light had also found its place, nicely aerodynamically shaped in the front, and placed to work as ceiling for the diffuser. It's all about details after all in Formula 1.

Specifications

Chassis identification: Ferrari F2002
Construction: Carbon-fibre and honeycomb composite structure
Front suspension: Independent suspension, push-rod activated torsion springs
Rear suspension: Independent suspension, push-rod activated torsion springs
Wheels: 13" BBS
Tyres: Bridgestone
Brake discs/pads: Ventilated carbon-fibre disc brakes
Gearbox: Semiautomatic sequential electronically controlled gearbox, limited-slip differential, 7 gears + reverse
Dimensions:

• Length: 4.495 mm
• Width: 1.796 mm
• Height: 959 mm
• Front Track: 1.470 mm
• Rear Track: 1.405 mm

Engine name: Ferrari type 051
Displacement: 3 litres
Configuration: 90° V10, naturally aspirated
Fuel feed: Magneti Marelli digital electronic injection
Ignition: Magneti Marelli static electronic ignition
Valve train: 4 valves per cylinder; pneumatic valve system

Images © of Schlegelmilch and Ferrari