The Ferrari F138 sees the light

February 1st, 2013 (F1plus Team).- Keep them coming. Scuderia Ferrari took the spotlight today –along with Force India- by unveiling its 2013 Formula 1 Championship contender, the F138, at its headquarters in Maranello.

The F138 is the fifty ninth car built by the scuderia specifically to race in the Formula 1 Championship. The new machine was developed under the supervision of technical director Pat Fry and chief designer Nikolas Tombazis at the Toyota wind tunnel facilities in Cologne, following Ferrari's decision to shut down its own unit in order to upgrade it.

Just like their rivals of McLaren, the new Ferrari features the “vanity panel” to cover the not-so-well received stepped nose of 2012. It also retains a pull-rod front and rear suspension layout from last year.

The rear of the car seems to have gone through the most modifications. The positioning and layout of the exhaust seemed tighter and more similar to one used by the team at the end of last season.

All in all, the team put more of its efforts in the aero department, which has been its most prominent weakness. Both air intakes, above the cockpit and the sidepods, were updated to improve the car's aerodynamics.

Overall, the F138 is an "evolution of the F2012 in terms of its basic design principals", but Ferrari said that they have revised every part in order to maximize performance.

Something that is clear is team’s intention to start strong and avoid a late charge within the championship.

"The key objective that we must have is of immediately delivering a competitive car to our drivers," team boss Stefano Domenicali acknowledged.

"Unfortunately in recent years we have at the beginning of the winter unfortunately not been able to be right on top of what we are doing.

We have tried to look at our organization to be much more effective in the preparations over the coming week." He added.