FERRARI INNOVATIVE?

[Geva racing]

Ferrari inroduced the MClaren Funnels on the sidepods.

Where's the innovation in that?

I think Ferrari always build there cars to win but an innovative yet less effective design always comes from the drawing board (excuse the anti space-age term).

Why else would teams like arrows, prost and jaguar almost build their car as a replica?

Although the tailpipes were innovative and very much copied most of their designs just don't live up to expectations.

Oh and another thing I like Formula ford better because they keep introducing new designs with a lot of new features and improvements.

[Dino IV]

Well that's an important part of engineering, Geva Racing.
Look around and spot the competition's solutions to the same problems you face. If they prove usefull, try them out.

McLaren's chimneys could prove usefull under some circumstances in a given design. The MP4\15 is way slimmer towards the rear than the F1-2000 though. One problem for the F1-2000 width there are the exhausts, so I expect to see them move elsewhere next year or maybe even towards the end of this year.

The McLaren solution for the exhaust system is extremely difficult to accomplish and probably an engineering question mark to most of the teams. So that prevents some copy-paste actions.

I wouldn't call Ferrari non-innovative however. They are even in the aerodynamics section trailing another path than most of the teams with very effective undertray arrangements.

Don't know what you mean with Arrows, Prost and Jaguar producing replica's. The Arrows front-end is revolutionary changed since last year and the Prost is - although stability is a dog - certainly not a copy. Their sidepod arrangements are the most innovative over the past few years. Jaguar probably set a record for the lowest nose section with push-rod arrangement, so every design has it's share of copy-paste and own implementation I guess.

[Peter Mallett]

Adopt, adapt and improve. Same as it ever was.