Why This Might Be Ferrari’s Lucky Year

MILAN — While China is celebrating the Year of the Tiger, Italians and Ferrari fans around the world are hoping this will also be the year of the Prancing Horse.

When it comes to Scuderia Ferrari, the luxury auto manufacturer’s racing division that competes in Formula One, expectations are always high, but over the last decade the Tifosi — as its supporters are called — have been left with far fewer reasons to cheer compared to the past. The last time Scuderia Ferrari won a Constructors’ Championship was in 2008, while the last driver of the team to be world champion was Kimi Räikkönen in 2007.

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And now Scuderia Ferrari is eager to repay the Tifosi’s faith in the team. “This year, we look forward to rewarding your loyalty and returning to our winning ways,” said Ferrari’s executive chairman John Elkann at the end of the digital presentation the team hosted on Feb. 17 to unveil the new single-seater car.

Elkann — who is also chairman and chief executive officer of the Agnelli family holding company Exor, which has stakes in Christian Louboutin, among other brands — appeared after Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto and drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz introduced the new model, which was christened F1-75 in honor of the 75th anniversary since the company’s founder Enzo Ferrari produced the first car, dubbed 125 S.

“We hope that it will uphold the honor and tradition of our team, the most successful of all times and the one with the longest history in the sport,” said Binotto.

“We know that expectations are high and that, in recent years, the results have not lived up to what is expected of the Ferrari name. We went in a new direction in 2019 and, even if there have been some difficult moments along the way, it has delivered a stronger and more unified team and this car is the perfect expression of all our efforts,” he continued. “We have a responsibility to our company and to our partners. But most of all, I’d like this car to perform in such a way that our fans can once again be proud of Ferrari.”

The new design matches the bold intentions expressed by Binotto, who defined the F1-75 car as “brave, because we have interpreted the rules thinking out of the box.”

While a strong technical focus was put on enhancing aerodynamics and behind-the-scenes improvements informed the power unit and the suspensions, the most immediate design features included an overall darker shade of red in juxtaposition with black elements — such as a revamped rear wing — as well as shark-like gill details on the sides and bigger tires, switching from the 13-inch to 18-inch size. These all contributed to confer a more aggressive look to the car, which Leclerc praised for its “extreme” design.

“I think I will love it even more if it’s fast on track, but I absolutely love the look,” he said.

AP Images

“We tried [the bigger tires] last year on last year’s car and it already felt like a step in the right direction. It should give us the ability to push a bit more in the races, challenge the cars in front, being able to race more closely. One question mark will obviously be the visibility,” noted Sainz.

After a brief demonstration at the Fiorano test track, the car will be run at the pre-season track session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in Spain, from Feb. 23 to 25. This will be followed by the official pre-season test in Bahrain from March 10 to 12, a week before the new season kicks off with the Bahrain Grand Prix.

This year is set to be the biggest Formula One season ever with a record-breaking 23 races scheduled, including the inaugural Miami Grand Prix on May 8. This will add to the other American race to be held in Austin on Oct. 23.

Scuderia Ferrari aims to get back to the top after ranking third in the 2021 Constructors’ Championship, while Sainz and Leclerc finished fifth and seventh in the drivers’ standings, respectively.

The pressure is on for both drivers, too. A result of the Ferrari Driver Academy, Leclerc is in his fourth season with the team and won over the Tifosi’s heart in 2019 when his first career win, in Belgium, was followed a week later by his first Italian Grand Prix — becoming the first Ferrari driver to win at the local circuit in nine years.

Spanish driver Sainz is in his second season with the team and got on the podium four times last year. “I think that no one would have expected you to be so fast very soon. It has not been a surprise to us,” Binotto told him during the presentation.

Hasan Bratic/AP Images

While the F1-75’s effective performance has yet to be proven, an extra boost of motivation for the Ferrari drivers can come from the more optimistic narrative surrounding this pre-season compared to those previous.

Last year’s victory of Red Bull Racing’s 24-year-old talent Max Verstappen over Mercedes-AMG Petronas’ star Lewis Hamilton not only shook up the status quo, interrupting the latter’s hegemony of four championships in a row, but also opened a door for a new generation of drivers to get in the limelight.

In addition to making the competition more intriguing sport-wise, this order also unlocks opportunities for sponsors and offers a fertile territory for fashion companies seeking fresh faces with whom to entrust their image and values.

While Hamilton’s storied career and seven world titles have earned him multiple ties with the fashion world — including numerous front-row appearances at shows such as Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton, invitations to the Met Gala, and a global brand ambassadorship for Tommy Hilfiger — there’s plenty of room at the moment for collaboration with young drivers like Verstappen and Leclerc; the U.K.’s golden boys George Russell and Lando Norris; Sainz, and Daniel Ricciardo, who competes under the Australian flag.

Giorgio Armani already tapped Leclerc for its made-to-measure campaign in 2020, which back then marked the first time the 24-year-old Monégasque driver fronted a fashion ad. Last year, Armani further cemented the ties with Formula One, signing a multiyear sponsorship of the Scuderia Ferrari racing team, supplying the formal attire and travel wear to the racing team to be worn at official events.

HOCH ZWEI/AP Images

Similarly, Hackett London is one sponsor of the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team, while the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team counts Belstaff and Tommy Hilfiger among its partners. Incidentally, Hilfiger’s affiliation for the sport dates to the ’90s, with sponsorships of the Lotus and Ferrari teams over the years.

But there’s fashion potential in tie-ups with single drivers, too. In addition to talent, drivers’ increasing visibility is a key asset. This is fueled by Formula One’s official social channels as much as by their own social media, which give genuine access to their lives and through which they manage to establish a more personal connection with their fans.

Formula One’s huge grip on audiences and enhanced entertaining quality have helped the car-racing competition in drawing attention more than ever. According to data released by Formula One, last year’s thrilling final battle between Hamilton and Verstappen at the very last lap of Abu Dhabi Grand Prix glued 108.7 million viewers to the screen, 29 percent higher than the same race in 2020 — and the highest-viewing figures for a race during the season.

The cumulative TV audience for the 2021 World Championship was 1.55 billion, up 4 percent from the 2020 season, with significant spikes in The Netherlands — Verstappen is Dutch — the U.S., France and Italy, which were up 81 percent, 58 percent, 48 percent and 40 percent year-over-year, respectively.

Globally, the average audience per Grand Prix last year was 70.3 million people.

This influence is extended to digital channels, too. In terms of follower increases in 2021, Formula One was the fastest-growing major sports league on the planet. Last year, aggregate followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitch and Chinese social platforms were up 40 percent to 49.1 million users, with a total engagement up 74 percent.

Further contributing to the entertainment side and sealing the pop-cultural moment of the sport, the Netflix series “Formula 1: Drive To Survive,” which shows the behind-the-scenes of the competition, is set to release its fourth iteration, strategically set for March 11 in the lead-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix.

This kind of attention and access to Formula One content is adding a democratic filter to the sport. Even if soccer remains the most popular sport globally and its vast demographic penetration makes it a perfect vehicle for fashion companies to reach many people at once and build brand awareness, Formula One is increasingly showing it can compete in that field, too.

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