Ferrari have launched their 2018 F1 car – the SF71H.
The car was revealed at an event at the team’s Maranello base, which was streamed live online. The SF71H features a refreshed livery, and is mostly red, largely due to Santander’s withdrawal of sponsorship. The team had been sponsored by the Spanish bank since 2009.
Both of the team’s drivers – Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen – were in attendance at the event, which was hosted by Marc Gene. Also present were Antonio Giovinazzi and the team’s new development driver Daniil Kvyat.
Sebastian Vettel led the Drivers’ Championship for the first twelve rounds in 2017, but it eventually slipped away from him as Ferrari stumbled through the Asian races. The Scuderia will hope to be challenging for the title in 2018, but will also need to keep one eye behind them, as Red Bull are expected to make gains on the Italian team. 2018 marks ten years since Ferrari’s last title success.
After graduating in 2015 with a First Class honours degree in English Language and Literature, Nicky Haldenby, a lifelong fan of Formula 1, founded the Lights Out F1 Blog in 2016. Now in its sixth season, the blog has become a firm fan-favourite, delving deep into the sport’s history books and lifting the cover on unusual F1 statistics. Nicky also writes at F1Destinations and Motorsport Guides. In 2017 and 2018, he wrote for Badger GP. Nicky is also the host of the F1 Rewind Podcast and can be heard as the resident stats man on the 2 Soft Compounds Podcast.