Ferrari's magic (gear)box

Technical director James Allison’s stewardship at Ferrari seems to have rekindled creativity within Maranello’s design department, as highlighted by its original gear case.

Already featuring a new cooling system (click here for more details), this year’s SF15-T also has an innovative rear end. Basically, an F1 gearbox comprises of the clutch, the transmission per se, and a case that is usually moulded in carbon fibre (or cast in titanium). The latter is pretty much the mainstay of the rear chassis and has pickup points to the back of the engine, the pull rod suspension and the rear crash structure. All these features make it an essential component on Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen’s latest charger.

For the past two years, Ferrari has been looking to declutter its gearbox and bell housing area. Its engineers and designers had for instance come up with a truly original idea last year, as they had placed the F14 T’s oil tank inside the gear case.

ALL IN THE BOX

This radical solution has been dropped on its successor though, with the oil tank returning to a more conventional position, i.e. in front of the internal combustion engine. Such assembly was first seen 17 years ago on the John Barnard-designed Arrows A19, as well as on the Stewart SF02 conceived by Alan Jenkins. This installation brings several benefits, including an improved centre of gravity, as well as shorter and lighter pipework. On Ferrari’s 2015 challenger, the exhaust manifold now occupies the newly freed space.

As seen on the picture below, the pipe goes inside the gear case through a couple of side and oval-shaped apertures, then converge in the collector before the single exhaust, which has been mandatory since 2014, comes out of the top.