Ferrari F2008, a great single-seater for a mocking season

The group led by Aldo Costa and Nick Tombazisafter the daring title of 2007did not want to rest on his laurels and conceived for the following year the F2008always entrusted to Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. A very different single-seater compared to that of the previous year, thanks also to the innovations for driver safety: the side protections for the head were raised and the shape under the pilots’ legs was revised. These changes were made necessary by the limitation of the use of composite materials, which among other things led to a weight gain of F1 single-seaters. Length and height are also reduced: this is due to theabolition of traction control on F1 cars, which forced the teams to modify the cars to ensure the drivers responded as quickly as possible.

NEW IDEAS FOR POST LAUNCH-CONTROL

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Ferrari also did without the electronic launch control which allowed smoother starts by optimizing acceleration. There transmission maintained the system seamless, which reduced the shifting times of the seven gears to a minimum. There traction of course he stayed rear, with multi-disc clutch, self-locking differential, self-ventilating disc brakes supplied by Brembo. This technical package, combined with the 8V 90° motor called 056 capable of delivering 750 HP of power, it was considered very competitive and able to easily repeat the 2007 triumph, but the season it turned out to be much more complicated.

A TROUBLED SEASON

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They arose reliability problems especially at the level electronicwhich cost the withdrawal of Felipe Massa in Australia. The Brazilian, who also established himself as the “top driver” of the Red team that season, ran into other unlucky moments. In some cases the Carioca paid for unfortunate technical choices such as the defective connecting rod that betrayed him while he was in command at the Hungaroring, depriving him of ten fundamental points from a title perspective. However, there was no shortage of them errors in the Ferrari pits like the one that penalized Massa a’s qualifications Silverstoneand “thriller” moments such as the “Crash Gate” in Singapore, which ended up further damaging the Brazilian.

THE TITLE ESCAPES AT THE LAST CURVE

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Circumstances that led to the mocking epilogue of Interlagos. Supported by the public, Massa managed to win and it seemed he could repeat Raikkonen’s feat from the previous year, but in the hustle and bustle of the final corners Hamilton managed to overtake Glockfinishing fifth and winning his first world title by one point…