The ceremony took place in the structure built to accommodate the new machine, within the Gestione Sportiva, in the presence of Ferrari CEO, Amedeo Felisa and the Scuderia Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali. "It's an important day for us as the completion of this project means we will now be able to tackle with confidence some of the challenges that make up modern-day Formula 1, while putting Ferrari at the cutting edge in terms of this technology," said Domenicali. "Furthermore, I am pleased that such a complex project as this, which got underway around two years ago, has been completed on schedule thanks to the efforts of all those who worked on it."
The first virtual laps at the wheel of the simulator were driven by Andrea Bertolini, who worked with the Prancing Horse engineers on the development of the project, having gained a great deal of experience over the past few years, working on the simulator at the FIAT Research Centre.
The Ferrari simulator, built with the technical support of Moog, consists of an aluminium and composite structure housing the cockpit and audio visual equipment.
The platform weighs around two tonnes and is fitted with electronically controlled actuators that weigh around half a tonne each. The whole structure is fitted on a specially designed base, weighing two hundred tons. The whole thing is controlled by ten multiprocessor calculators with over 60 GB of RAM: the amount of data that can be produced is around 5GB per day. It features a Dolby Surround 7.1 sound system, putting out 3500 watts. The installation required over ten kilometres of cabling and the total power output is around 130 kW.
The simulator is housed in a building measuring around 180 square metres, on two floors, which includes the control room. The platform covers a surface area of around eight metres square and is six metres high.
The driver is installed in front of five displays, which give a total viewing angle in excess of 180°.
Ferrari's F1 drivers for the 2010 season have been confirmed as Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
Posted on 24.12.2009
