Sainz and Leclerc excited by ‘radical, extreme’ Ferrari F1-75

The Ferrari F1-75 sent hearts fluttering across the world when it was unveiled on Thursday, and the team's drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were clearly enamoured by the brand-new Scuderia machine – remarking on how bold the design is.

A dark-red paint scheme coupled with black wings and shark-like gills make the F1-75 one of the meanest-looking machines to be unveiled this February, and that look wasn’t lost on Spaniard Sainz, who gears up for his second season with the team in 2022.

“I think it looks aggressive, it looks radical, and I think it looks beautiful also… I just hope it’s fast,” said Sainz. “It’s innovative, different, thinking a bit out of the box. I like it because it’s just radical, which is what you want to see when you see a new car.”

AS IT HAPPENED: Watch as Ferrari launch their 2022 F1-75 challenger

Ferrari named their contender the F1-75 in honour of their first production car, the 125 S, which rolled off the factory floor 75 years ago. Sainz’s team mate Leclerc was clearly pleased with the traditional elements in the new car’s design.

“Yes, I do [like the livery]. I think it fits perfectly. It’s a bit of a dark red, looks a bit more aggressive but for a car like this, I think it fits perfectly. We have the 75-year anniversary logo which I think fits well with the colour scheme, we are trying to represent the old days of Ferrari, you know, and I think this colour is a mix of what we had last year at the front, with what we had at the back,” he said.

Taking a look at the bodywork surrounding the engine, he added: “I think this is my favourite part of the car itself. You can really see how much work there has been for this bodywork, so yes, it looks impressive, it looks extreme, and I like this.”

Team Principal Mattia Binotto agreed, explaining that the engine packaging was a key part of the car’s development after Ferrari spent much of 2021 and the winter break working on the power unit that sits beneath.

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“If you look at the packaging a lot of effort went into the power unit. The packaging is very different, the cooling. The power unit we worked on a lot through the winter season, not only the entire last year; we had to develop it because we know that it will be a key element for the next seasons.

“So, we developed it in terms of a lot of innovation on the combustion engine, a lot of development on the hybrids that we brought as development last year in the season but furthermore, I think there is quite a lot that has been done. It is covered. But obviously the suspension, we worked a lot on them, you can see different to the past, the rear wing.

“So, the cars are different in terms of the ground effect, the floors that we do not see here but as well in terms of the shape, at least for me it is quite incredible, the work which has been done,” concluded the Ferrari chief.

The Scuderia aim to get back to the top having taken third in the 2021 championship, and we’ll soon see the F1-75 hit the track as Ferrari will run the car in a 15km demonstration run at Fiorano on Friday, and complete a further 100km in Barcelona on February 22 before pre-season testing.