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By Jonathan Noble & Michele Lostia
Ferrari have played down the significance of their 'hole in the nose' design, insisting other aerodynamic developments on their car are just as important in helping the speed of the F2008.

The Maranello-based team were the centre of attention during testing at Barcelona in Spain last week when they ran the much-rumoured nose hole feature for the first time.

And although there had been talk that the benefit of the concept could be large, Ferrari's chief designer Nikolas Tombazis insists the impact is not that great.

"It is not something revolutionary that will make us go two seconds quicker," Tombazis told Gazzetta dello Sport. "More simply, it's an aerodynamic development, like others that are perhaps less evident but maybe even more important."

Tombazis explained that the introduction of the hole was delayed until the start of the European season because of the need to pass a new crash test, and so Ferrari could ensure they had enough parts for the races.

"It's an idea we've been working on for some time, but it wasn't one of the fundamental points of the F2008 project as people may think. In fact the car has raced, and well, without it too."

Speaking about the benefits of the design, Tombazis said: "It allows you to better control the airflow on the front wing, with benefits on other components behind, like the diffuser and the rear wing.

"The driver feels an increase of aerodynamic load, so he can go quicker in the curves. But this is also the result of other things we introduced in the Montmelo test and that are not visible."

[via Autosport]