Fred Vasseur & Co.’s “Fugly” F1 Car Breaks the Internet With Fans Bashing FIA’s Upcoming Changes

“F1 Cars are meant to go fast, not look good.” Over the years in F1, Ferrari has managed to come up with some pretty ugly designs and paint jobs. The livery from Miami is one of those examples and going back in time about a decade, we get the 2014 Ferrari which had a vacuum cleaner-like front nose. FIA is now bashed for the upcoming rule changes as Fredric Vasseur and Co.’s car takes over the F1 world. 

In the movie, “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” the protagonist has a dog named Enzo after the legendary Enzo Ferrari, who traveled to all the races with him. Seems like FIA and F1, who are more focused on the entertainment side of F1 (Drive To Survive), have taken inspiration from the movie and put the Ferrari drivers to test in the wet conditions as they introduced the new wheel covers for the wet conditions. 

The spray from an F1 car was always a problem as it reduced the visibility in the wet conditions increasing the potential of a crash. This issue has only grown with the new ground effect cars, as they accelerate the water under the car, and spit them behind at enormous speed. While nothing can be done about this, F1 has been trying to reduce the spray from the wheels and hence the wheel cover has been in development for over a year now. 

FIA did a test at Silverstone last year with a smaller wheel cover but that did not yield the expected results. As a result, new bigger wheel covers were tested today by Ferrari. These wheels cover almost 3 quarters of the wheel with some cutouts in the front. In the images that have surfaced, the spray is reduced significantly when compared to a car without the covers. The covers were deemed as fugly by many in the F1 community. 

As these spray reduction devices make the F1 car look uncannily ugly, the fans are slamming the FIA for it. Let’s see what the fans had to say. 

“Just say no”: Fans Deject FIA’s Attempt to Improve Wet Weather Racing

As soon as the pictures from the FIA’s test with Ferrari surfaced online, fans took to social media platforms to bash the FIA for creating the ugly monstrosities in the name of wheel covers. Some fans were just not ready for what FIA had made in the name of wheel covers and straight away said no to the idea, even if it meant the racing wouldn’t happen. 

Then there were those who pointed out the flaw in the regulations with the ground effect suggesting that it is the diffuser which is the main culprit for most of the spray.

Some pointed out the fact that if the wheels are covered, then F1 will lose its identity of being an open-wheel racing series. 

Many gave F1 and FIA the idea to just ask Pirelli, the tire supplier for F1 to produce tires that evacuate less water, and will therefore cause less spray. The drivers already hate the wet tires and switch to the intermediates as soon as possible. Making the grooves smaller will help with the racing as well. 

Some took shots at the FIA and F1 for creating this problem themselves as they introduced the new rules for the 2022 cars which saw this issue become a significant one in the first place. 

What did you make of these new wheel covers? Are you okay with the cars looking ugly if these wheel covers improve the racing in the wets?