Ferrari has moved to deny its long-time sponsor Santander has mistakenly revealed the name of the Scuderia’s 2017 Formula 1 challenger on its official Twitter feed.
The tweet, which has since been deleted, read that Ferrari’s latest charger would be called SF17-JB, in honour of former Marussia ace Jules Bianchi, who passed away on July 17, 2015 from the severe head injuries he had sustained in a crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
©Formula Santander/Twitter
The late Frenchman, who had been groomed as a future Ferrari driver, used #17 as his permanent racing number during his all-too-short career in the top flight. F1's governing body, the FIA, retired Bianchi's number shortly after his passing.
Santander later admitted it had gone "way too fast" in sharing the name of Ferrari's 2017 car, adding that it was not official yet.
We were going way too fast! The name of the 2017 Ferrari car isn’t official yet. We're sorry, but we all have to wait for it.
