► Your first look at Maranello’s new plug-in hybrid supercar
► It’s an overhauled SF90 underneath, now with proper engine start button!
► 1035bhp, 0-62 in 2.25sec and F80-derived electronics
After what feels like five minutes (it’s actually been six years), Ferrari’s SF90 Stradale is gone, replaced by this new supercar, the 849 Testarossa – a midlife refresh of such scope and ambition that the term feels grossly underqualified.
Undoubtedly innovative (the SF90 was Maranello’s first plug-in hybrid), and despite being described as ‘a success everywhere’ by chief marketing and commercial officer Enrico Galliera, the SF90 always felt like a car that struggled to find its place in the world. A two-seat hypercar with a hybrid-boosted, twin-turbo V8 and nearly 1000bhp, complicating factors included driven front wheels, pitiful luggage capacity (odd when its electric-only range suggested it might work nicely as an everyday supercar) and the nagging suspicion that the (rear-wheel drive) F8 Tributo and 296 GTB were lighter, simpler, more affordable, barely any slower and more fun.
With a radical external redesign, a new cockpit and HMI, F80-derived electronics and plenty of input from the programme that created the brutally impressive SF90 XX Stradale, the new Testarossa should be easier to understand and to fall in love with than its slightly aloof predecessor.
Yep, no, glad you brought it up. Certainly, anyone expecting Ferrari to have done what Lamborghini did with the divine, Sian-based Countach reboot in 2021 will be sorely disappointed with this Testarossa.
Let’s deal with the easy bit of the name first: 849. There are eight cylinders, and if you divide the engine’s displacement by eight you get something like 49 decilitres. Done.
Now, the more controversial bit. The Testarossa name, first used in the ’50s on racers like the 1956 500 TR, came to be synonymous with Ferrari’s most powerful engines – and the new car’s powertrain is certainly potent. Ferrari’s second line of reasoning? That the Testarossa of the ’80s (likely the more obvious reference for most) was aesthetically progressive and forward-looking, as is the new car. Hmm.
We collared chief design officer Flavio Manzoni for an explanation – did he know the name when his team designed the car?
‘We did not know the name,’ says Manzoni. Would it have changed anything? ‘No. There are no references to the Testarossa of the ’80s [in the design]. We never follow an approach which is nostalgic. We show you some pictures of some old Ferraris today, but the car is completely different – for us it is a question of interpretation. You only need to look at the internet to see endless examples of modern reinterpretations of the cars of the past. But this is not design; this is a banal approach. Why should we repeat ourselves?’
Is there a risk, perhaps, that the name invites people to expect a rebooted ’80s Testarossa; all side strakes and Miami Vice cool?
‘Maybe, yes, because some people don’t have any imagination. I love the name, of course. But this doesn’t mean that the form should be similar to the original. The designers of the Testarossa in the ’80s did not look to the ’50s for inspiration when they designed that car; they didn’t think about the past.’
Fair.
Same. And given Manzoni’s team were absolutely shackled to the existing SF90 hard points beneath, their creation of such a radically different form is to be admired.
‘It was very difficult,’ continues Manzoni. ‘I know that when you look at it now, it doesn’t look so difficult – in the final form everything seems easy. But it was really challenging, particularly with the cooling, the aerodynamics and the new turbo system, which is much bigger than before. Nevertheless, it’s always a matter of how we are able to interpret the concept around these constraints. The more you know the constraints, the more you can imagine a form which is suitable.’
The rear aspect is sublime; imposing, elegant, cohesive. The front riffs on ’80s themes (albeit without the pop-up headlights), with the strong horizontal facia we’ve also seen on the 12Cilindri and F80, and flicks at the corners that echo the distinctive, 512 S-inspired twin tails – elements that cleverly circumvent regulations by qualifying as part of the rear bumper. An active rear wing also does duty at the back, working with the vast rear diffuser to boost downforce when required.
Overall, the form is crisp, clean and muscular, contrasting vividly with the softer, less aggressive SF90. The sports prototypes of the ’70s were a heavy influence, as were jet fighters – you can see it in the black ‘bands’ that denote the air intakes for the vast intercoolers, borrowed from the F80.
And if you spot a familial similarity with the F80 and the 12Cilindri… well, Manzoni’s happy with that. ‘I like the fact you can see a consistency. There is a clear connection, and a shared design philosophy. I would say our design language is architectural, with a composition of volumes interlocked together. These designs are simple, not too complicated, even if this is a supercar – of course, with every supercar there is a lot of complexity in the engineering.’
Naturally. Under the skin, the fundamental powertrain concept is unchanged. Pitched at Ferrari clients who care only for big horsepower and an extreme, adrenaline-soaked driving experience but who don’t quality for/can’t afford an F80, the Testarossa retains the SF90’s three-e-motor plug-in hybrid powertrain, with two e-motors up front – one on each wheel – and a third unit in the rear, boosting the output of the twin-turbocharged V8 and, we’re assured, eliminating turbo lag. (F80-style electric turbos don’t feature, for reasons of weight and the fact that the Testarossa lacks the 48-volt electrical architecture required to power them.)
Power is up, to 1035bhp, but we’re firmly into diminishing-returns territory here, as we were with the SF90 XX. The SF90’s engine made 769bhp and the full system 986bhp. The SF90 XX upped that by 30bhp to 1016bhp. The Testarossa finds another 20bhp from the engine, for 807bhp from the V8 and a system total of 1035bhp. Performance, predictably, is shattering, with 0-62mph dealt with in 2.25 seconds (quicker than both Lamborghini’s Revuelto and Aston’s heavier, much more expensive Valhalla) and 0-124mph in just 6.35sec. Top speed is ‘in excess of 205mph’.
30bhp might sound like the kind of power increase you should be able to get with a couple of new lines of code and a fresh air filter, but achieving it here was a lot more work: all-new turbochargers (non-variable vane, and the biggest ever used in a series-production Ferrari), new cylinder heads, new block, new exhaust manifolds, new intake plenums, revised valvetrain and fuel rails and a full set of titanium fasteners, to offset the weight increases elsewhere and bring the Testarossa in at the same weight as the SF90: 1570kg (with the lightweight Assetto Fiorano pack).
The hybrid system’s e-elements are unchanged, with the same 7.45kWh battery supplying the juice to the same e-motors, though the Testarossa’s smarter, faster-acting electronics allow the car to use more aggressive torque vectoring more of the time. Regen efficiency is also improved, Ferrari says, though the electric-only range remains unchanged at 16 miles.
It’s the same story – marginal gains to deliver a slight but quantifiable advantage over what came before. Around tight and twisty Fiorano, the Testarossa’s 1.5sec faster than the previous car, albeit 0.2sec slower than the SF90 XX.
The suspension retains the same hardware but runs new calibration, for a 3% increase in lateral performance and a 10% reduction in roll. The braking system’s been overhauled with new Brembo rear calipers, bigger vents for improved cooling and an upgraded version of Ferrari’s ABS Evo system, which leans on the car’s smarter new dynamic brain to optimise braking across all four wheels. Pedal feel is improved too, it’s claimed, and in total the 6D brake-by-wire system increases the repeatability of peak braking performance and shortens the stopping distance 62-0mph by a metre. It all adds up, I guess.
The big news on the dynamics side is Maranello’s latest baffling acronym, FIVE – Ferrari Integrated Vehicle Estimator. Developed for and debuted on the F80 hypercar, it promises to take Maranello’s already slick and unobtrusive driver-flattering tech to new heights.
‘We developed this system for the F80, where the idea was to make driving with 1200bhp achievable for every kind of driver,’ says Gianmaria Fulgenzi, chief product development officer. ‘In less than one millisecond the system can evaluate all the important dynamic parameters, including those that aren’t directly measurable, such as yaw angle, and keep the car in perfect balance. It’s a digital algorithm, accurate to less than 1km/h and less than 1° of yaw angle, that can precisely control the dynamics, making the car easier to drive – and faster.’
‘Imagine you are pushing like hell, hard on the gas pedal. With FIVE, the physical and mental effort is lower, because the system is able to create the perfect dynamic condition. It can read patterns in your driving, predict what the driver will ask for and prepare the system for these inputs. So, you get the best performance but in control. And it feels natural. You really feel that it is you controlling the car; the electronics act very smoothly and very fast, and don’t feel any intrusion.’
The system is always on, regardless of drive mode, and could be the key that unlocks the driving enjoyment the SF90 struggled to reliably serve up, so busy was it blowing your socks off with brute force. Given the polish of Lamborghini’s Revuelto and the playful biddability of Aston’s Valhalla, let’s hope so.
Yes indeed. The cockpit architecture is new, inspired by the cosy embrace of single seaters, and a choice of seats will be available: a comfort option and carbonfibre race seats.
But the big news is the revised and cleaned-up driver interface, which promises to resolve what’s been an Achilles’ heel for Ferrari ever since the previous system arrived in the otherwise wonderful Roma. The main display has been simplified, a change it sorely needed, and a new steering wheel features a return to physical controls for many functions, including engine start – yep, the soulless haptic start button is dead, replaced by a, erm, start button. Scenes.
Well, your first job is to work out which 849 Testarossa you want. The coupe and spider are available more or less simultaneously, and both can be had with or without the now customary Assetto Fiorano pack. The pack shaves about 30kg through its extensive use of titanium and carbonfibre, including lightweight seats and 20-inch carbon wheels. The pack also brings more pronounced aero elements, including mini wings in place of the twin tails, uprated Multimatic dampers, Cup2 tyres and bespoke liveries.
849 Testarossa coupe deliveries will begin in Q2 2026, with a base price in Italy of €460,000 (£398k).
The Spider comes on stream a couple of months later and will set you back €500,000 (£433k). On both cars the Assetto Fiorano pack is a €52,500 (£45.5k) option. UK pricing is as yet unconfirmed, and the fact that you could buy an actual ’80s Testarossa together with a sensational 296 GTB for the same money as the new 849 is neither here nor there. For now, at least, this Testarossa is Maranello’s series-production flagship, and that’ll be draw enough for most.
As editor, Ben leads CAR magazine and its content strategy. One of the team who's just as happy on two wheels as four.
By Ben Miller
The editor of CAR magazine, story-teller, average wheel count of three
