Ferrari F310

Ferrari F310

Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari F310 at the 1996 German Grand Prix
Constructor:	Ferrari
Designer:	John Barnard Gustav Brunner
Predecessor:	Ferrari 412T2
Successor:	Ferrari F310B
Technical specifications
Engine:	Ferrari 046/1 V10
Length:	4355 mm
Width:	1995 mm
Height:	970 mm
Wheelbase:	2900 mm
Weight:	595 kg
Tires:	Goodyear
Petrol:	Shell
statistics
Driver:	Michael Schumacher Eddie Irvine
First start:	1996 Australian Grand Prix
Last start:	1996 Japanese Grand Prix
Starts Victories Poles SR 31 3 4th -
World Cup points:	70
Podiums:	9
Leadership laps:	114 over 589.708 km

The Ferrari F310 was a Formula 1 racing car with which the Italian Scuderia Ferrari participated in the 1996 season . The car marked a turning point in the history of the racing team: It was the last Ferrari racing car designed by John Barnard and the team's first Formula 1 car to be powered by a ten-cylinder engine. The so-called Schumacher era at Ferrari began with him. A revised, generally believed more efficient version of the car appeared the following year under the name Ferrari F310B .

background

After Scuderia Ferrari won the world championship with Jody Scheckter in 1979 , the Maranello team was relatively unsuccessful for a decade and a half. Ferrari won the constructors' championship twice ( 1982 and 1983 ); From 1980 onwards, however, the title of driver world champion regularly went to pilots from other teams. In 1991 , 1992 and 1993 Ferrari won no races, in 1994 and 1995 there was one victory each.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Ferrari's then chairman of the board, Luca di Montezemolo , initiated a new start in sport, which included the renewed commitment of the British designer John Barnard in 1993 and - from 1996 - the commitment of the two-time world champion Michael Schumacher . Gianni Agnelli , managing partner of Ferrari's parent company Fiat , expressly approved this process and stated at the presentation of the F310 on February 15, 1996: "If Ferrari does not win with Schumacher, it is entirely our fault."

During the 1996 season, Ferrari began to bring back to Maranello the technical development of the chassis, which had previously taken place in Great Britain at Ferrari Design & Development, which was run by John Barnard . Since Barnard was not ready to move to Italy, Ferrari terminated the contract with Barnard at the end of 1996. He was replaced by Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn , who had worked with Michael Schumacher at Benetton since 1992 and had laid the foundation for his first two world championship titles.

technology

Ferrari Tippo 046-2

Ferrari F310 Basic technical information

Responsible designers of the Ferrari F310 were John Barnard and Willem Toet. Gustav Brunner joined the design team in the spring of 1996 ; he oversaw the first revision of the F310.

The F310 was completely redesigned and had no technical resemblance to the models from previous years. Aerodynamics also originated in Great Britain. When it was presented, the F310 was the only car of the season that did not have a raised nose, but a front section sloping towards the front wing. In this form, the F310 contested the first races of the season. From the Canadian Grand Prix onwards, Ferrari also adopted the high nose concept that Tyrrell had introduced in 1990 with the 019 and which had established itself as a promising aerodynamic solution in the early 1990s. On the F310, however, the high nose did not harmonize with the vehicle body, so that the hoped-for improvement in aerodynamics only occurred to a limited extent. A noticeable design feature was the very high cockpit surround, which was supposed to implement the new safety regulations that came into force. It was generally found to be bulky.

Like the chassis, the F310's engine was completely new. Ferrari turned the last engine manufacturer in the Formula 1 of the concept of the twelve-cylinder engine from which the team in naturally aspirated engines for the first time since 1964 employed 1512 had pursued for more than 30 years. The new 046/1 engine, designed under the direction of Gilles Simon, had ten cylinders in a V configuration . The advantages of the ten-cylinder concept were the lower fuel consumption compared to twelve-cylinders, and the engine was lighter and needed less cooling, which allowed the cooling air inlets to be designed more aerodynamically. The bank angle of the 046/1 was 75 degrees, the displacement was 2998.1 cm³. The cylinder dimensions of 046/1 corresponded to those of 1994 used 3.5 liter twelve-cylinder type 043. Ferrari also developed a version with short stroke that was less robust, however, and only once - during qualifying for the Grand Prix of San Marino  was used - . Like its predecessor, the 046/1 had four valves per cylinder. The engine output was estimated at 529 kW (720 hp) in racing trim. Accordingly, the 046/1 was the second most powerful engine in the field after the Renault RS8B used by Williams and Benetton .

The gearbox was also a new design. The basic version had six gears that were shifted electronically. In the course of the year, a further developed version with seven gears was also developed. The gear housing had components made of titanium and plastic. It turned out to be leaking when it was first used in Australia , so Ferrari used the gearbox from last year's 412T2 model in the following races in Brazil and Argentina . In order to accommodate the transmission in the car, the rear suspension of the previous year's model had to be installed. In this version, the F310 was aerodynamically problematic.

Sponsors

As in previous years, the largest sponsor of Scuderia Ferrari was the tobacco company Philip Morris International , which advertised its Marlboro cigarette brand on the rear wing and on the side of the engine cover. However, Marlboro was not the name sponsor. The tobacco advertising ban in F1, which was beginning at this time , forced the teams at some races in countries where the ban was already in place to switch to some very creative changes to the existing brandings . Other major donors were the consumer electronics manufacturer Pioneer and the oil company Royal Dutch Shell , which was under contract with Ferrari for the first time in 1996 after the team had terminated the long-term contract with Agip .

driver

With Michael Schumacher , who came from the Benetton team as the reigning world champion, and Eddie Irvine who moved from the Jordan Grand Prix , Ferrari signed two new drivers. As in the previous year, Nicola Larini was the test and reserve pilot .

Races

The Ferrari F310 was technically unreliable. Numerous failures were due to technical defects. Even if it worked, the F310 did not come close to the performance level of the aerodynamically sophisticated and very powerful engine equipped Williams FW18 , which won 12 of 16 races of the year.

Schumacher was on pole position four times . He won three races of the season in 1996 with the Grand Prix of Spain , Belgium and Italy , was runner-up three times and dropped out five times. In France there was not even a race: The Ferrari engine burst in the introductory lap before the start. In the first half of the season, Schumacher also suffered from clutch problems. A badly gripping clutch was responsible for bad starts at the Nürburgring as well as in Imola, Monaco , Spain and Canada, as a result of which Schumacher lost several places. The problem was not solved until the summer of 1996 when Ferrari switched to a clutch from Fichtel & Sachs .

Eddie Irvine finished third in the opening race in Australia. After that, he crossed the finish line five times outside of the podium, but partly in the points. The technical failures hit him harder than Schumacher. Starting with the Spanish Grand Prix, which his team-mate won, Irvine dropped out eight times in a row, five times in a row from France to Belgium due to problems with the transmission. However, Irvine was also eliminated four times due to driving errors or accidents.

At the end of the season, Ferrari finished second in the constructors' championship with 70 points. The deficit on Williams , the winner of the constructors' championship, was 105 points.

Race results

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
Formula 1 season 1996																		70	2.
Michael sSchumacher	1	DNF	3	DNF	2	2	DNF	1	DNF	DNS	DNF	4th	9 *	1	1	3	2
Eddie Irvine	2	3	7th	5	DNF	4th	7 *	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	5	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

gallery

• 

  Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari F310 at the 1996 San Marino Prize

• 

  Ferrari F310
  ( National Motor Museum , Beaulieu )

• 

  Ferrari F310

• 

  Front view of the Ferrari F310 (low nose)

• 

  Front view of the Ferrari F310 (high nose)

• 

  Rear view of the Ferrari F310

• 

  Engine (Ferrari Tipo 046) of the Ferrari F310

literature

• Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing - Cars, Tracks and Pilots. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
• David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001. Crowood Press, Marlborough 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
• Sabine Kehm (Ed.): MSC - The career of Michael Schumacher, told based on his racing cars. (= Official book for the Michael Schumacher Private Collection ). Offizin Scheufele, Stuttgart 2018, pp. 64–65.
• Claus Mühlberger, Michael Schmidt: 50 years of Michael Schumacher: Man - The career - The victories. (= auto motor und sport Edition - 50 years Michael Schumacher ). Motor Presse, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-613-30890-9 , pp. 56-57.
• John Nicholson, Maurice Hamilton: Inside Formula One 1996. The Grand Prix Teams. Macmillan Publishers, London 1997, ISBN 0-33367-851-6 (English).

Web links

Commons : Ferrari F310  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ferrari F310 . In: formula1.ferrari.com (English)
• Ferrari F310 . In: f1technical.net (English)
• Ferrari F310 . In: conceptcarz.com (English)
• Ferrari F310 . In: statsf1.com
• YouTube: 1996 Rd01 Melbourne - Ferrari F310 - M. Schumacher - 1: 33.125 "Low Nose Version"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1996 Ferrari F310 Specifications. Retrieved May 26, 2020 . 
2. ↑ 1996 Ferrari F310. Retrieved May 26, 2020 (English). 
3. ↑ Ferrari F310 - F1technical.net. Retrieved May 26, 2020 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001, 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 97.
5. ↑ Barnard had designed the successful McLaren cars in the 1980s and had worked for Scuderia Ferrari from 1987 to 1990.
6. ^ John Nicholson, Maurice Hamilton: Inside Formula One 1996. The Grand Prix Teams. Macmillan Publishers, London 1997, p. 67.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, 1st edition 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , p. 488, p. 488.
8. ↑ 1996 Ferrari F310 Specifications. Retrieved May 26, 2020 . 
9. ↑ 1996 Ferrari F310. Retrieved May 26, 2020 (English). 
10. ↑ Ferrari F310 - F1technical.net. Retrieved May 26, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Basile Davoine, Stefan Ehlen: How Formula 1 circumvented the tobacco advertising ban. motorsport.com, December 31, 2016, accessed February 6, 2020 . 
12. ^ David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 245.
13. ↑ Eddie Irvine Grand Prix 1996. In: motorsportarchiv.de. Archived from the original on February 20, 2005 ; accessed on January 13, 2019 .