| With the turn of the New Year comes anticipation | | | | in Formula One have mandated new regulations |
| for the beginning of the racing seasons in | | | | designed to increase passing. The car is a |
| NASCAR and Formula One. Both have been hit by | | | | reflection of those regulations and other teams |
| tough economic times and made radical changes | | | | have the same look based on testing photos. Still, |
| to lower costs. If you thought the Car of | | | | the sheer ugliness of the car is compounded by |
| Tomorrow was ugly in NASCAR, you have to get | | | | two big concerns. |
| a gander of the new F1 cars. | | | | The first concern has to do with passing. The |
| Formula One doesn't begin racing till late March, | | | | new design is supposed to make passing easier. If |
| but that doesn't stop teams from launching their | | | | so, it seems an odd design. The vast majority of |
| cars starting in early January. Launching is, of | | | | down force now appears to be on the front wing. |
| course, just another way to drum up a media | | | | As a car pulls up to a slower one, the air will be |
| event for sponsors to see the new car, take | | | | lost off the front wing. A sudden lack of down |
| plenty of pictures and publish them in periodicals | | | | force hardly seems to be a tonic to help passing, |
| around the world. | | | | but perhaps there is another element of the car |
| Ferrari is the first team to launch the new car this | | | | that compensates for this. |
| year. Ferrari has always had a sleek car of deep | | | | The second concern is the sheer extension of the |
| red, black and some white. Regardless of how | | | | front wing. Formula one starts from a standing |
| your feel about the team, the colors are | | | | stop. The first corner is always a bang up affair - |
| breathtaking and the cars are beautiful. Well, till | | | | pun intended. With the new design, it seems |
| now. | | | | impossible that the drivers will be able to see the |
| The new Ferrari, the F60, reminds one of the | | | | ends of the wing. Given this, one can expect a |
| joke about the fact a person wasn't hit by the | | | | bevy of crashes as front wings clip the tires and |
| ugly stick, the entire tree fell on them. This is one | | | | bodies of other cars. The resulting carbon fiber on |
| ugly car. It starts with a front wing that is so | | | | the ground should make for plenty of laps behind |
| wide it extends out to the outer edge of the | | | | the safety car. |
| front wheel. It looks bad, but is made far worse | | | | How will the new car perform during the 2009 |
| by the fact the back of the car has a wing that is | | | | season? For the first time in a very long time, |
| very narrow. Frankly, it looks like the parts from | | | | nobody really knows. Every team is starting from |
| two different cars where mashed together in a | | | | scratch, so the first race should be very exciting |
| Frankenstein design. | | | | and well worth watching. |
| Alas, this is not Ferrari's fault. The powers that be | | | | |