Ferrari's ewly launched 2009 single seater, the F60, has been declared "illegal" by a specialist German motoring publication. Auto Motor und Sport said the car, revealed last week at the Mugello circuit in Italy, features rear exhaust outlets that contravene the sweeping new technical regulations.

The magazine said some of the Italian team's rivals have noted that because of the new rules cracking down on bodywork appendages like aerodynamic winglets, exposing the exhausts in the way the F60 is designed is not allowed. A glance at the other new cars revealed so far - the Renault, Williams, McLaren and Toyota - shows that their exhausts have all been mounted in-board. Auto Motor und Sport said it should not be too much of a problem for Ferrari to redesign the exhaust housing, but it may help to explain the team's retreat from the Portimao group test this week to Mugello.

Officially, Ferrari decamped to Mugello because of adverse weather forecasts for this week, but the magazine said the F60 also showed a significant problem with its front wing when tested last week. It is suggested that, in light of these challenges, Ferrari concluded that it should be conducting the car's first major test as close as possible to its Maranello base.

 

It is going to be an eyesore to watch these cars run... I can't wait to hear Varsha, Hobbs, and Matchett comment this year. The only hope is that the rules changes turn the races into MotoGP-style passing fests...

 

Agreed, the new cars are far from being pleasing to the eye. The narrow rear wing lookd like it belongs on a Go Cart. But I do hope it provided for more exciting races via more passing. Looking forward to the 2009 Season!

 

Some of the new cars look really good (Ferrari, Toyota, McLaren) and others look awful (BMW, Renault). Regardless of how the cars look, there are more legitimate contenders for WDC than ever before! This season will be incredibly fun, I think.

 

Alzilla I hope your right man...

 

The new wings are the ghey. Love the rest of the cars though. Especially looking down on them.

But should be an interesting season.

 

I have a really good feeling about this. Massa will be on the charge since he had a taste of WDC for approximately 30 seconds before Lewis passed Glock. Raikkonen needs to pull out all the stops this year in order to lock down his position on Ferrari since Alonso is apparently fighting for his seat as well. Which leads us to Alonso who was the fastest driver on the grid in the 2nd half of the season and will continue to pick up the pace if his car is worth two shits. Then you've got Kubica who was doing pretty well last year and it sounds like the Sauber-BMW team has a really solid car this year, as well as being the only team to have KERS all sorted out. In addition to all of these drivers, there is always the wild card: Sebastien Vettel. He gave us just a glimpse of his talent at the beginning of the season and really began to shine in Monza, despite being in a rubbish car. He then did a fantastic job of outpacing Hamilton when he was at his best during the penultimate race of the season. Now that he moved up to a slightly better team, who knows how he'll fare this season!

And then of course, there is Lewis Hamilton. As long as he is on the grid, nobody else stands a chance!

Trust me, it's going to be an incredible, action-packed season!

 

I agree with you Alex but I think the status quo has shifted in terms of who's fastest on the grid the new regs have almost wiped the slate clean and Melbourne will be a true test in terms of pace

 

Melbourne this past season was very similar to that in that it was the first real race many of the drivers had done without traction control. I remember it was a pretty entertaining race, as less than half the field actually finished the race, iirc. Sort of reminded me of European GP from the Nurburgring in 2007 when there was that horrible storm and everyone spun out a ton of times before they eventually called the race off for a few hours.