Ferrari F2002

Ferrari F2002

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Category	Formula One
Constructor	Ferrari
Team/s	Ferrari
Designer	Rory Byrne
Drivers	1. Michael Schumacher 2. Rubens Barrichello
Chassis	carbon-fibre and honeycomb composite structure
Suspension (front)	double wishbones, pushrod
Suspension (rear)	double wishbones, pushrod
Engine	Ferrari 053/B/C 75-degree V10
Gearbox	Ferrari seven-speed longitudinal semi-automatic sequential
Fuel	Shell
Tyres	Bridgestone
Debut	2002 Brazilian Grand Prix
Races competed	20
Constructors' Championships	2
Drivers' Championships	2
Race victories	16
Pole positions	12
Fastest laps	11

The Ferrari F2002 was one of the most dominant Formula One car designs of all time, designed by Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, and Paolo Martinelli. It won twenty Grands Prix between 2002-2003.

The car was much lighter than its predecessor, the F2001. Powered by a 3.0 litre V10 engine which had a very low centre of gravity, the F2002 had excellent handling. Bridgestone developed special tyres, suited specifically for the car. Aerodynamically, the Ferrari was well ahead of the contemporary Williams BMW but perhaps a little down on power, and on a par with the 2002 season's McLaren car.

Team Personnel behind the F2002

The majority of the conceptual design work for the Ferrari F2002 was by Ferrari's legendary South African chassis designer Rory Byrne and the engine design by Ferrari's Paolo Martinelli. The project was overseen by the team's technical director Ross Brawn. A vast army of other team personnel oversaw the running of the team and the project.

Concept and Design

Previous to the inroduction of the F2002 had used their championship winning Ferrari F2001. However the F2002 was not only a development of this car but a completely revolutionary model involving many technologies not seen previously. Since the late 1990s Ferrari had been using the same basic concept and design of gearbox and although this had been used to win drivers and constructors titles from 1999 onwards the technical team pushed ahead with a new version instead. The new replacement gearbox casing was made of ultra lightweight and higher strength titanium, thus reducing its weight by as much as 15% and lowering the cars centre of gravity. The new compact design allowed for great advancement in the bodywork and increasing the car's aerodynamic efficiency at the rear. However such was the extent of the gearbox casing redesign that the aerodynamic work was left behind schedule and initially did not represent the same performance gains as the mechanical engineering. Thus Ferrari continued its design for another two months and only first used the F2002 at the third round of the 2002 season having been using the previous year's F2001 chassis, albeit with many alterations and the inclusion of the Ferrai 051 2002 engine. Other advancements on the car include the clutchless direct shift technology within the gearbox, a new fluid traction control system to replace the previous 2001 traction control system, and upright aerodynamically shaped periscopic exhaust outlets at the rear. The latter technology was incorporated both to use the hot exhaust gases for aerodynamic effct but to raise these gases higher and out the way of the rear suspension. On previous occasion Ferrari's non chimneyed top exiting exhaust outlets had caused the rear suspension and other elements at the rear of the car to overheat or even melt when minor cracks occurred.

Race History

At its first race the F2002 was victorious, being driven by Michael Schumacher and continuing Ferrari's trend since 1999 for its cars to win on their debut. Michael Schumacher clinched second on the grid and after a first lap altercation with Juan Pablo Montoya, took a somewhat easy win from his brother Ralf's Williams. There was some controversy surrounding tyre allocation because the team only had one F2002 chassis at the race. Therefore Schumacher's spare car was a F2001 chassis and because the two chassis used different wheel rim designs each required separate wheels and tyres. It was thus argued that Schumacher had in-effect twice the allocation of tyres as any other driver. The controversy was managed by Ferrari agreeing to aggregate their tyre usuage between the two cars, ensuring that Schumacher used the same total number of tyres as all the other drivers.

The car was first used in the Brazilian Grand Prix driven by Michael Schumacher. What followed was a season of domination which hadn't been seen since McLaren's 1988 season. Schumacher scored 10 more victories, a record in a season and was world champion in record time, winning the championship at the 11th race of the season in France, while Rubens Barrichello scored four. The two drivers were comfortably first and second in the drivers' championship, and Ferrari scored as many points (221) as the rest of the teams put together.

The F2002 was still competitive at the beginning of 2003, and Schumacher took the car's last win in the San Marino Grand Prix before it was replaced by the F2003-GA for the next race.

See also

• Lotus 79
• McLaren MP4/4
• Williams FW14

External links

• Technical details for the Ferrari F2002