The SF90 Stradale is Ferrari’s 211mph plug-in hybrid hypercar

SF90 references Scuderia Ferrari which is marking its 90^th competitive year of motorsport in 2019; this year’s F1 car is also called SF90. A significant occasion requires a significant car, and the SF90 Stradale fits the bill. Ferrari says it represents a paradigm shift among hypercars.

Speculation before Wednesday’s unveiling suggested it may have a V6 engine but no; at the heart of the car is the familiar and awesome twin-turbo V8. Bored out to a full 4.0-litres and delivering 780PS (769bhp) at 7,500rpm, it is the most powerful eight-cylinder Ferrari engine ever. So while there’s no V6 (yet…) there has been some downsizing, because never before has a V8 beaten a V12 in the Maranello series-production model hierarchy. As of today, SF90 Stradale is top dog.

The car’s power is rounded up to 1,000PS – that’s 986bhp – by three electric motors which together deliver 220PS (217bhp). One is an F1-derived motor generator unit fitted at the back and there are two on the front axle. Apart from giving the SF90 all-wheel-drive – the first Ferrari sports car to have it  – the front motors can drive the car on their own for up to 25km (15 miles or so) in quiet, emissions-free mode at speeds up to 84mph. The front motors are also responsible for taking the car backwards; the eight-speed dual clutch transmission doesn’t have a reverse gear in order to save weight.

Dry kerb weight is 1,570kg which is less than the (less powerful, single electric motor, V12) LaFerrari, even if it is 230kg heavier than the F8 Tributo that replaced the 488 GTB earlier this year. The Power-weight ratio is still pretty tasty, of course, at 628bhp per tonne.

No surprise then that with all that grunt and all-wheel-drive traction the SF90 can outsprint its hybrid hypercar forebear. 0-62mph takes just 2.5 seconds and 0-124mph is over in 6.7 seconds. That is a whisker faster than a McLaren Senna which boasts a superior power-weight ratio. They are figures which Ferrari says ensure the car is the new benchmark for standing starts. Not top speed though; at 211mph that’s 6mph shy of the LaFerrari’s.

The aerodynamicist’s art these days is less about ultimate low drag, and hence top speed, and more about ramping up the cornering downforce while getting enough air into, and out of, the car to keep things cool; Ferrari says temperatures in the engine bay can hit 900 Celsius.

The headline downforce figure is 390kg at 155mph. Maranello claims this puts the SF90 at the top of its segment, though it’s worth remembering a Senna from Woking has twice that downward pressure at the same speed.

But then the Ferrari does not have a jumbo jet’s wing stuck on the back. What it does have is the Shut-off Gurney (it perhaps sounds better in Italian) which Ferrari says is the car’s most innovative aero device. A Gurney flap (after F1 driver Dan Gurney who invented it) is familiar, but this is a clever, active version of it. Electric actuators automatically adjust the wedge-shaped wing to manage airflow over the upper body depending on whether maximum downforce or minimum drag is needed. In low drag mode for straight line speed, the Gurney is aligned with the second, fixed part of the wing – the part with the central brake light in it. When maximum downforce is needed, the Shut-off Gurney lowers, fully uncovering the fixed wing. The aero is balanced at the front by a system of vortex generators.

And it’s at the front that the car looks relatively familiar, which is not something that can be said of the rear end. The SF90’s rump is clearly going to take some getting used to. Ferrari itself says the car is “epoch-changing from a stylistic perspective as it completely rewrites the mid-rear-engined sports berlinetta proportions introduced on the 360 Modena 20 years ago.”

What’s so different about it? The rear deck is very low for starters – thanks to a “significantly” lower-mounted powertrain – the exhaust pipes high set, and the rear overhang short. But it’s the disconnect between roof, rear screen and tail, enclosed by two huge body-coloured flying buttresses, that scrambles the mind. How do you see out the back? Clearly more investigation needed here, but one thing for sure, while it may not be pretty it’s certainly radical and sure to get everyone talking.

The rest of the car, with its cab-forward and aeronautically inspired, all-black cockpit “canopy”, promises to be less polarising. The cabin is not just pushed forwards but is also 20mm lower than the Ferrari norm, and fronted by a more wraparound windscreen and slim A-pillars. Up front there are matrix LED headlights of new slit design, incorporated into the air intakes.

Inside is an all-digital display with a configurable 16-inch curved high-definition screen in the centre console. The look is sleek and minimalist and, says Ferrari, provides the template for Ferrari models. Even the steering wheel gets a makeover: it now incorporates a touchpad and haptic buttons which allow the driver to control virtually every aspect of the car using just their thumbs. We’re not sure about that but the transmission controls laid out as if on a traditional Ferrari’s exposed metal gate is a nice touch.  

To drive, you select a mode from one of the four available. eDrive is purely electric for that drive to work through the city; unlike LaFerrari, the SF90 will need to be plugged if you want to keep the lithium-ion batteries topped up. Hybrid is the default setting which optimises the efficiency of both V8 and electric motors, occasionally shutting off the V8 when it’s not needed. Performance mode keeps the V8 running all the time along with the electric motors. Then there’s… no, not race mode, but Qualify mode. As you might expect, this turns everything up to 11.

The SF90 comes with Ferrari’s extensive suite of control systems which, along with a torque vectoring effect from the front electric motors, aims to keep those 1,000 horses from stampeding. Ferrari says that electric front axle and all-wheel-drive makes driving the car on the limit easier. For diehard circuit drivers, though, there’s the Assetto Fiorano track specification. Ferrari says it is the first time Ferrari has offered standard and track versions.

SF90 Stradale by numbers

20,000 km service intervals

1,570kg overall dry kerb weight

1,000PS (986bhp), total system power of most powerful production Ferrari ever

800Nm of torque (590lb ft) at 6,000 rpm

900 C, the temperature that can be generated by the V8 hybrid powertrain

780PS (769bhp) at 7500rpm, highest power of any eight-cylinder engine in Ferrari history

390kg of downforce at 155mph

270kg extra weight from the hybrid technology

220PS (217bhp), combined power of three electric motors

211mph top speed

90 years since the Scuderia first started racing Alfa Romeos

79 seconds, the official lap time at Fiorano

74 litres of boot capacity

55 per cent rear weight bias

25km (15 miles) range in all-electric eDrive mode

16-inches, the size of the curved HD screen on the centre console, the biggest curved screen in a car

8-speed dual-clutch transmission

2.5 seconds, 0-62mph

6.7 seconds, 0-124mph

Three electric motors, one at the back, two up front