Promising a more aggressive approach in 2012, Ferrari's chief designer Nikolas Tombazis insists that lessons have been learned this year.

With the 2011 championship all but decided, Ferrari has made no secret of its plan to switch its focus to its 2012 contender.

"We are currently at the stage of finalising the main components," reveals Tombazis, "the larger parts with a requirement for the longest production time.

"That means the chassis, the general layout of the car, the suspension and gearbox," he continues. "Some of these components are now at the production stage, while others are at the final part of the design process. We are right in the middle of development for the aerodynamic elements and it's fair to say we are now totally concentrated on the new car."

With no significant changes to the rules next year, Ferrari will use the remaining races of this season to try out new ideas. "Having accepted for a while now that this year's championship titles are beyond our grasp, our main effort is aimed at next year," admits the Greek. "The technical rules have not changed that much, with general stability prevailing, apart from the area involving the exhaust system. Therefore there are areas on the 150º Italia that are relevant for next year. That means in the remaining races, we will be experimenting with this in mind. For example, we could try a new front wing that represents a different approach in terms of how it works. We can therefore try and learn as much as possible right away.

"Clearly, we also hope it will be beneficial for this year's car too in the races that are left," he added. "Even on the exhaust side there are lessons to be learned from what we have done so far, because any in-depth study also brings benefits. Our rivals were ahead of us in developing this area and that gave them a big advantage. The lessons we have learned from this and other similar situations in the past, always have a benefit for us in the end.

"I hope the results will speak for themselves when we launch the car," he continued, "and more importantly, as we tackle the first few races on the calendar. A more aggressive approach has come about as the result of the analysis we carried out of the defeats we suffered over the past few years. We realised we had been a bit too conservative and had closed our minds to some strands of development. So for next year's car, we have sanctioned a much more aggressive approach on the aero front, which has required a much closer working relationship with those developing the structure of the car. It might make it harder when considering other aspects of the car, but it allows more room for aerodynamic development. The other element of the new approach is in how we make use of the wind tunnel: it involves not just developing and optimising what we have, but also introducing to every wind tunnel session some new concepts, which sometimes might not work, but sometimes can produce interesting results."

However, the Greek is a little more guarded when it comes to revealing what the 2012 car might look like. "I think that visually, the new car is fairly different to its predecessor but if it has a wow factor, as our team principal Stefano Domenicali thought, when he first saw the model, then I hope the wow factor will also be evident from the results. We have set ourselves ambitious targets, which we intend to maintain and so, on this front, I am quite optimistic."