The next Ferrari F1 car isn’t going to be named by a panel of Italian executives, but by the people of the internet.
Ferrari F1’s team president, Luca di Montezemolo made the announcement during his annual Christmas press briefing. Their growing social media fan community is going to get the chance to help name the new car, although exact details of how this process is going to work haven’t been released.
The current F1 car is the F138, which takes its name from the year and the vehicle’s V8 engine, which made its final appearance in 2013. It’s not particularly exciting or inspired, so Ferrari has decided to think out of the box and give its fans a go at coming up with a more creative name for their 2014 car.
The names usually have something to do with the car specifically or with a moment worth marking in Ferrari history. We had an F2012 last year, an F60 in 2009 in honor of their 60th year in F1, and the F150 in 2011 to celebrate 150 years since Italy’s unification.
If that last one had you thinking pickup trucks and not F1 cars, you weren’t alone. They had a bit of a legal battle with Ford over the name.
Asking fans to name the car is a novel approach, but definitely not the first time Ferrai has turned to the internet for showcasing its cars. All the way back in 1996 they became the first team to debut a car on the internet. This year’s debut had over 83,000 online viewers.
Letting the internet name your car, though, that could be a little dangerous. It’s the internet, after all. It’s a place not known for its self-control, good manners, and thoughtful insight.
You’ve got to figure they have a plan that involves weeding out the completely crazy ideas that you’ve probably come up with in just the time it’s taken you to read this post, so put down your pen and wait to see what kind of rules they devise.
Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.