The chief designer of Ferrari's new F2012 car has quickly jumped to his maligned new baby's defence, insisting that their latest Formula One challenger is not an ugly car amidst widespread horror from observers at the team's launch.
Ferrari's bosses had warned that their new car was 'ugly' in the run-up to the car's launch, and they were proved right on Friday when the new F2012 was revealed.
The car features the most aggressive 'platypus'-style nose to date, with the car's design provoking widespread pain throughout F1's fandom.
But the car's designer Nikolas Tombazis insisted after the launch that he did not feel the design was particularly ugly, and suggested that the car would prove to be "beautiful" if it was a winner.
"There have been some rumours saying that this car is ugly and I have to confess that I am not objective on that, as I don't share that opinion," he told the official Ferrari website.
"For me I have got used to the bump on the nose. I think the rest of the car has been the fruit of a lot of detail work."
He added: "Ultimately, as far as I am concerned, an ugly car is one that doesn't win and a beautiful car is one that does win.
"So, for now, I want to believe it is a beautiful car and we will have to review that after the first few races."
Tombazis did admit that the shape of the nose was not necessarily "aesthetically pleasing", but said that their design was the best option given the new lower nose rules in the regulations.
"The nose has an ungainly shape on the top," he admitted, "That is the result of the regulation that requires us to have the nose quite low but the dynamic desire to have the lower part of chassis as high as possible.
"Even though it is not aesthetically pleasing, we believe it is the most efficient aerodynamic solution for that area of the car."
As far as the overall car was concerned, he added: "One of the innovations of the car is the front suspension. For mainly aerodynamic reasons, we have selected a pull rod solution.
"It took us quite a lot of work from the structural and design offices and vehicle dynamics department to regain all the mechanical characteristics we wanted the suspension to have.
"I believe we have achieved that, but we also think we have found an aerodynamic advantage from this solution."
The team's technical director Pat Fry added that the F2012 represented a far more aggressive design approach than the team had opted for in recent years.
He also suggested that a range of early upgrades were already being developed to try and give them an edge over their rivals.
"A lot of people have said a lot of things, and it is a bit of a step away from where we have been," Fry said regarding the new car.
"Certainly we have taken a few more risks on the basic car layout and things like that, but all in all everyone has done a good job.
"But we need to knuckle down and start pushing for the upgrades for the first race and through the year."
The car will make its on-track debut on Tuesday, when Felipe Massa drives it in the first day of pre-season testing.
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