G E A R E D - I N

There is no doubt that 2002 is a year marked in red: Ferrari’s trademark scarlet.  The season dominated by Ferrari ended with yet another one-two finish at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan—a fitting end to a campaign that was perfect in every sense.  So easily predictable was each race’s outcome that millions of viewers switched off from Formula One, prompting F1 big boss, Bernie Ecclestone to lobby for adverse rule changes ranging from victory ballasts to driver swapping. 

Though Ecclestone could think of crazier things to make the sport more “exciting,” the world of Formula One has always been inextricably linked with Ferrari.  No other team is more recognizable and more passionate than this Maranello-based outfit.  Though the sport is currently playing host to a lot of big time manufacturers ranging from BMW to Jaguar to Honda, the prancing horse marque has always had the biggest fan support anywhere, from Brazil to Japan to Argentina and South Africa. 

Currently basking in the glory of his fifth World Championship title, Michael Schumacher has always said that it was the hard work of the entire Ferrari team that made this feat possible.  For Schumacher, the countless hours of testing and re-engineering is what made the F2002 Formula One car a winner right out of the box.   

The F2002 obliterated the competition, leaving in its wake everything from the brutishly fast BMW-Williams to the super-agile McLaren-Mercedes.  The Ferrari won fifteen out of seventeen races; eleven of these were won by Michael Schumacher.  Though these two big-budget British-German teams have tried, they’ve all but gotten the formula right when it comes to winning a Grand Prix race.  So did Ferrari pull off the seemingly impossible feat of domination?  At this point, it’s best to let the car speak for itself.

The Ferrari F2002 comes from a team that prides itself as one of only three manufacturers who did the design and construction of both chassis and engine (Toyota and Renault are the other two).  The F2002 comes in as the forty-eighth single-seater in the long, illustrious line of Ferrari cars, conceived specifically to compete in the Formula One World Championship.  Though an all-new design, it follows the philosophy set by the previous year’s dominant F2001.  The Maranello-based team optimized the overall aerodynamic package, lowered the center of gravity and maximized the performance of the 051 engine.  Moreover, in typical Ferrari fashion, they created the F2002 with aesthetically-pleasing curves that make it the sleekest-looking car on the track even when it stands idle.

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