The chassis was designed by Rory Byrne, Ignazio Lunetta, Aldo Costa, Marco Fainello, Nikolas Tombazis and James Allison and Paolo Martinelli, assisted by Giles Simon leading the engine design and operations, under the overall leadership of Ross Brawn who was the team's Technical Director and Jean Todt the team Manager.

[6] Williams in trying to solve their 2001 car's reliability problems were forced to "play it safe" for 2002, while McLaren's deficiency was due to the decision to stick with Michelin tyres as well as Mercedes struggling to design a beryllium-less engine for 2002.

[7] Using the Pomeroy Index system, Motor Sport magazine recently determined that the F2002 is the fastest Formula One car of all time.

Since the late 1990s, Ferrari had been using the same basic concept and design of gearbox and although this had been used to win drivers and constructors titles from 1999 onwards the technical team pushed ahead with a new version instead.

The new replacement gearbox casing was made of ultra-lightweight and higher strength titanium, thus reducing its weight by as much as 15% and lowering the car's centre of gravity.

[9] However such was the extent of the gearbox casing redesign that the aerodynamic work was left behind schedule and initially did not represent the same performance gains as the mechanical engineering.

[11] At its first race in Brazil, the F2002 was victorious, being driven by Michael Schumacher and continuing Ferrari's trend since 1999 for its cars to win on their debut.

Michael Schumacher clinched second on the grid and after a first lap altercation with Juan Pablo Montoya, took a somewhat easy win from his brother Ralf's Williams.

Schumacher and Barrichello were criticized for swapping finishes at Austria and the United States - an event that would provoke a ban on 'team orders' for the following seasons, and would be raised again in 2010 when Ferrari was fined after appearing to instruct Felipe Massa to allow Fernando Alonso to win the German Grand Prix.

[14] The F2002 (renamed the F2002B) was still competitive at the beginning of 2003, and Schumacher took the car's last win in the San Marino Grand Prix before it was replaced by the F2003-GA for the next race.