Ferrari’s ballistic SF90 Stradale earned kudos for its pace and potency when it launched in 2019, but the prancing horse’s series-production spearhead was never truly warmed to by the motoring press or Ferraristi in general. For all its fury and rapidity, it failed to excite and engage in the way that many of its Maranello stablemates did.
Ferrari has aimed to remedy all the SF90’s shortcomings with its 849 Testarossa successor, which reprises one of the brand’s hallowed nameplates – aficionados will remember the famous, strake-laden 1980s Testarossa. As for the newcomer’s 849 prefix, it reflects the car’s engine specs (eight cylinders of 499cc each).
Even though the 849 Testarossa carries over most of its SF90 predecessor’s core hardware, Ferrari’s engineers and design department have reworked the recipe so comprehensively that, in essence, the debutant is an all-new car – and hence the complete switch in naming strategy.
The 849 Testarossa’s headline stats are stupefying. Peak power from the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 hybrid (petrol-electric) power-train is quoted at 1050hp, representing a 20hp bump over the already bonkers SF90.
The hybrid element of the power-train – comprising an F1 derived MGU-K (electric motor) that supplements the V8 in driving the rear axle, plus two front e-motors – provides torque in-fill at low revs, so the perception from behind the wheel is of zero turbo lag.
Ferrari quotes a 0-100km/h split of 2.25 sec, 0-200km/h in 6.35 sec and a top speed of 330km/h-plus; Astoundingly, the 849 Testarossa’s 0-100km/h split is virtually lineball with Ferrari’s F1 car.
Our first sampling of the 849 Testarossa is via a track session at Circuito Monteblanco in southern Spain, and Ferrari’s claim that the debutant is an easy car to come to grips with – even for non-pro drivers – becomes evident almost immediately.
Helping greatly in quickly gaining familiarity is feedback-rich steering that serves as a faithful guide to what’s taking place at the front wheels. There’s an instant feeling of being intimately connected to the car, rather than communicating with it through various layers of electronics.
In addition, the brake pedal has a lovely progression to it – there’s no way of discerning that retardation is being provided partly by the huge carbon-ceramic discs (410mm at the front and 372mm at the rear) and partly by regenerative energy being relayed to the 7.45kWh battery pack.
The 849 Testarossa makes such rapid progress around the track that a complete recalibration of the brain cells is called for. Any straight sections in the circuit are simply monstered, with the pairing of brawny twin-turbo V8 and trio of electric motors doling out thrust in a linear and seemingly endless wave – all the way up to the 8300rpm redline.
Corners rush up in a virtual blur into your field of view, so you need to process information faster than ever before. It’s visceral and dramatic, yet there’s never the feeling that the car is about to spit you off the track. Even when the chassis twitches under hard braking and heavy throttle loads, the 849 Testarossa stays true to the intended trajectory.
As eye-opening as the track session is, a road loop across Andalusian backroads in the afternoon proves no less insightful. Mounted up in an eye-catching Giallo Modena (yellow) 849 Testarossa, there’s the opportunity to discover another dimension of the new Ferrari’s persona.
The initial stretch of the route is on the freeway, with the 849 Testarossa loping along at a relaxed 140-150kph cruise. The twin-turbo V8 that had been singing at the top of its lungs out on the circuit is now discernible only as a muted hum in the background.
Turning off the freeway and heading towards the mountainous roads winding across Sierra Morena, it’s an opportune time to engage the “Bumpy Road” setting to iron out some of the lumpy tarmac we’ll be traversing.
Carving across the mountain pass, the 849 Testarossa proves just as satisfying and engaging to drive as it was on the racetrack. The crisp steering, reassuring brakes and torque-laden power-train combine to deliver brisk yet non-taxing progress.
The cabin is vastly improved, too, as the 849 Testarossa’s new dual-cockpit layout is partitioned by a floating pillar that also houses the transmission selector – this design was conceived to optimise space and improve ergonomics, according to Ferrari.
Externally, the most dramatic view of the 849 Testarossa is the rear three-quarter angle, with the striking twin-tail derriere inspired by 1970s Le Mans racers, most notably the sublimely sculpted 512 S.
The doors are also an interesting stylistic and functional element, with their three-dimensional surface incorporating a hollowed-out duct that feeds 30 per cent more air to the intercoolers than was the case in the SF90.
As per the 12Cilindri and F80, the 849 Testarossa has a visor-like treatment at the front and, although I didn’t warm to it when I first saw the car a couple of months ago, it’s starting to grow on me.
There’s not a whole lot to fault in Ferrari’s latest hypercar, although one gripe relates to the tiny 74-litre “frunk” (front luggage compartment), which is too small to swallow even an aircraft trolley bag. You’ll need to travel extra-light in the 849 Testarossa.
The newcomer is expensive, with an expected starting price around the Dh2 million mark. That said, Ferrari flagships have never been about affordability, so it’s what we’d expect.
There are far worse ways of spending a couple of million dirhams, for those who have the wherewithal.
