This is the front wing from the Ferrari F310, a Formula 1 car that would go on to win eight Grand Prix, take seven pole positions, 22 podium places, and almost win the 1997 Formula 1 World Championship.
The Ferrari F310 was designed by John Barnard and his team in England, working at the Ferrari design offices there. The design would be taken over by a new team the next year and moved back to Italy for the development of the F310B chassis.
The F310 was revolutionary for Ferrari in a few ways, it was the first of their cars to be fitted with a V10 engine, and it was the first F1 car to be fitted with the gauges right on the steering wheel – now common practice among all teams.
This is the Ferrari F310 Formula 1 car, shown here in a publicity image before the beginning of the 1996 season.
Under the gleaming red paintwork of the F310 you’ll find a honeycomb and carbon-fibre composite monocoque chassis with a detachable engine cover, rear wing, and front wing/nose section. It has independent push-rod suspension front and back, carbon-carbon composite disc brakes, and an electro-hydraulic 6-speed gearbox with paddle shifters.
Power is provided by that aforementioned Ferrari V10, it was called the Tipo 046 and it consisted of 10 cylinders in a 75º V-formation, twin overhead camshafts per bank, four valves per cylinder, a displacement of 2998cc and a total power output of 715 hp at 15,550 rpm, which was increased in later versions.
This is an image from the release of the car, from left to right you can see Ferrari Team Principal Jean Todt, driver Eddie Irvine, Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, driver Michael Schumacher, Fiat CEO Giovanni Agnelli, and test driver Nicolas Larini. Image courtesy of Ferrari.
The Ferrari F310 had a low-nose design when it was introduced in 1996, it was the only car to use this design as all others had switched to the more aerodynamically efficient high-nose. Later developments of the F310 would use a high-nose, and so the front wing/nose section shown here is obviously one of the earlier examples from 1996.
This front wing was used by Michael Schumacher, it carries the large number 1 on the front as a results and it still wears its period livery including advertising for Fiat, Shell, Goodyear, Telecom Italia, and Magneti Marelli.
It’s now due to be auctioned by Artcurial on the 5th of February in Paris with a price guide starting at $21,700 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Artcurial
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
