Quantum Leap

The F80 isn’t just the best supercar in the world—it redefines what a supercar is.

Story by Laurent Chevalier

Photos by Ferrari

    

September 4, 2025

On a steep country road in the Marche region of Italy, about 30 miles south of San Marino, I wasn’t expecting to experience a revelation, yet that’s exactly what happens. Better still, it’s an apparition, dazzling evidence, an eminently palpable sign that reveals a supreme state of driving. The ten minutes stolen behind the wheel of the F80 during our photo shoot will remain etched in my memory forever—and I’m talking about a level of sensation that relegates to oblivion the last 20 years of testing every supercar on the planet.

To be clear, this Ferrari marks a decisive step forward compared to the likes of Pagani, Koenigsegg, Bugatti, and the Aston Martin Valkyrie, among others. I’m not just referring to its dynamic qualities, but also—and above all—to its ability to generate sensations, to make you experience moments that give the impression of levitation.

On the first straight, I accelerate hard in Race mode, just to see. And do I ever see. The moment my big toe brushes the right pedal, the F80 explodes with a burst of power that stretches space and time. You might say it’s the same thing driving a McLaren Senna or a Pagani Utopia. It’s not.

Ferrari’s V6 reacts as if it has no inertia, zero response time, and no limits. Although the F80 is a hybrid, the internal combustion engine is always

on, its overwhelming, muffled drone presaging the car’s arrival. With a single burst of acceleration, I answer my question about missing that classic, legendary, trademark V12 engine—and the answer is, this turbocharged, electrically boosted 3-liter V6 lacks nothing. It reincarnates the violence of the F40, the progressiveness of the F50, the reach of the Enzo, and the supernatural strength of the LaFerrari.

Diving into the first corner is just as dramatic—I barely touch the brakes and the scenery freezes. I start to turn in and the nose shoots toward the apex with indescribable speed and fluidity. I’ve never felt anything like it behind the wheel, to the point I can feel the skin on the back of my head contracting in a spasm of euphoria. There are cars that make you feel as if you’re one with the machine, but here it’s more like the machine has become a living organism.

The thought that flashes through my mind comes from the movie Avatar, when the heroes tame wild dragons and transform them into weapons of war. That’s it, exactly; the F80 is one of those fabulous beasts, hurtling toward the apex as if diving into the void, settling on its dampers while spiraling around the bend, then launching back into action with a flap of crashing wings. In this case, the Ferrari’s brakes bite, the nose dives, and it obeys your every command telepathically. It takes my breath away and makes my hairs stand on end.

Meanwhile, indescribable sensations flow through the steering wheel. The F80’s steering is unlike any other Maranello model in terms of consistency, yet it feels even more connected. The moment the front axle kicks in, I feel as if I can predict what the car will do, as if I can see the slightest gravel under the wheels and know how the car will behave. There’s density but no torque steer from the electrified front end in the steering wheel, only a direct connection between my hands and the front tires.

Put simply, everything—from the suspension architecture to the damping, including all the electronic driver’s aids and the electric motors that power the front wheels—is just as it should be: absolutely transparent, homogeneous, and clear. Not only does the F80 behave like a pure rear-wheel-drive car, it remains accessible, as well as easier to handle than an SF90 Stradale, giving less of a weighty feel on the nose and greater rigidity.

The latter element can be credited to the car’s all-new carbon-fiber chassis, which is 50-percent stiffer than the LaFerrari’s in torsion and flex, five-percent lighter, and also more civilized, in that it better absorbs road noise. The F80 even proves comfortable on the open road, where I had expected the hardcore filtering of a 499P at Le Mans.

That same sense of surprise carries into the cockpit, which is far from being a caricature. The offset bucket seats (the passenger’s sits a little further back than the driver’s) suggested a lack of elbow room, and the cabin looks tiny at first glance, yet two people can easily fit inside. I was even able to slide my six-foot-four frame into the passenger seat, which was supposed to be limited to those no taller than 6-1. It’s like butter.

The end of the public road test drive offers the opportunity to make an initial assessment: the F80 is astonishingly comfortable on the open road, a night-and-day difference compared to a Koenigsegg Agera or an Aston Martin Valkyrie. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that a racetrack is strongly recommended if you want to get a feel for the F80’s full potential: 1,200 hp, 3,362 pounds (dry), 5.75 seconds from 0 to 124 mph, and a top speed of 217 mph.

THANKFULLY, THE SECOND PART OF MY DAY includes just such a location. The Misano World Circuit, in northern Italy, runs 2.6 miles counterclockwise through ten right-handers, six left-handers, and a 656-yard straight—not very long, but long enough. The program of delights includes entry, main course, and dessert, namely a rather slow and technical first third that will allow me to feel the torque vectoring at work entering and exiting tight corners; a more open second third that should reveal grip and longitudinal acceleration; and, finally, a third of fast curves, perfect for assessing the stability of the active aerodynamics (2,315 pounds of downforce at 155 mph are on offer) before I stand hard on the brakes to experience the deceleration provided by ABS Evo and the famous CCM-R carbon-ceramic racing brakes.

Before diving in, however, it’s time for a sighting lap to prepare the F80’s electric boost function, which is built into the Qualify and Performance modes. “After completing an initial acquisition lap, during which the system identifies the track’s characteristics, this optimization strategy determines where electric power offers the greatest advantage in reducing lap time,” the Maranello engineers explain. “These are corner exits, which the system always prioritizes over straight-line acceleration. In Performance mode, the function allows the powertrain’s power to be used for a longer period and for a greater number of laps. In Qualify mode, it’s likely that the battery’s state of charge won’t guarantee more than one lap, maybe two, but that’s not certain.”

Whatever the case, the F80 shoots down the track like a jet fighter taking off. From behind the wheel, though, the predominant impression is of a very, very low center of gravity. Among other tricks, Ferrari’s active suspension lowers ride height to maximize aerodynamics. The system follows the same principle as in the Purosangue, but with a completely different setup: push rods and double wishbones at all four corners. Unlike conventional suspension that is limited to locking onto the track, the F80’s is capable of changing the car’s attitude, directly adjusting things to deliver a little more understeer, neutrality, or oversteer.

As a result, the F80 gives the feeling of a perfect marriage in position and movement, all frequencies combined. It embodies the ultimate in roll, pitch, dive, and yaw management, all with a slight understeer to ensure it remains accessible.

Even weighing my words carefully, I must say it: This is beyond perfection as I had understood it. Ferrari is pushing the limits to an unexplored level. This is a new era of driving sensations.

High-speed stability is unshakeable. Whatever the pace, the F80 inspires confidence where the Valkyrie intimidates. The same is true under braking, thanks to the system borrowed from the 296 Challenge and used for the first time on the road.

It’s worth noting that the CCM-R brake discs use a special carbon fiber whose coefficient of friction allows for extended track use—“These discs are the crown jewels of the project!” an engineer tells me—and the force of deceleration is mighty. Do they bite harder than the shark-like jaws of the McLaren Senna? It’s hard to say after a few laps, but what is certain is that the braking intensity surpasses that of any current supercar.

That’s also the case with the F80’s overall capabilities, which go far beyond those of a Pagani Utopia or a Koenigsegg Agera. There’s no point in looking for comparisons, as there aren’t any; the F80 breaks new ground.

In short, while I had expected to be blown away, it was never to this extent! This Ferrari obliterates all benchmarks in terms of dynamic sensations. Never before has a car been so communicative, agile, transparent, or—especially—so generous in creating emotions behind the wheel. It’s no longer a question of technology or efficiency, but rather pure adrenaline. The F80 delivers the kind of experience that absolutely surpasses everything else.

Sidebar: Printing Suspension Arms

One of the F80’s most interesting innovations is its upper suspension arms. For the first time on a road car, Ferrari has used 3D printing (a process already frequently used in motorsports) to create a structural element. What led to this change?

The shape of a mechanical component comes from a combination of specifications—which determine the external dimensions and mechanical constraints it must be able to withstand—and the manufacturing method chosen to create it. While traditional processes impose significant constraints in shape, so that the object can be removed from the mold if it is made in a foundry, or so that it can pass through tools such as a lathe or milling machine if it is machined, additive manufacturing (a.k.a. 3D printing) allows for complete freedom in this regard.

Better still, so-called “topologically optimized” design allows for the creation of complex shapes (e.g., hollow with extremely thin walls, or even with a honeycomb structure) using material only where it is strictly necessary to withstand the stresses these parts will be subjected to. The resulting weight reduction can be spectacular, on the order of 20 to 50 percent depending on the application.

How does it work? The most commonly used additive manufacturing process in mechanical engineering is called “laser powder bed fusion,” in which the component is printed as follows:

First, a very thin layer—about a tenth of a millimeter—of metal powder (in this case, an aluminum-titanium alloy) is deposited in a vat. The printer then focuses laser beams on the surface of this powder to melt it along a path that precisely outlines the first slice of the object to be manufactured. The vat is then filled with an additional layer of powder, on the surface of which the lasers outline the next slice
of the part, and so on, until the part is completed. All that remains is a surface treatment (e.g., microblasting, abrasion, chemical bath) and a machining pass in the locations requiring, for example, the mounting of bearings and ball joints in the case of a wishbone, and the part is ready to be mounted on the car.

There are pros and cons to additive manufacturing. On the one hand, 3D printing is a potentially time-consuming and therefore expensive manufacturing process for large components. The number of slices mentioned above is determined by the height of the element to be produced, and large objects can require several days of manufacturing.

On the other hand, the process is very material-efficient and does not require any initial investment, such as mold making. It is therefore well-suited to the very small production run of the F80, of which only 799 units are planned, and for which the
pursuit of maximum weight reduction can justify a high price. —Yves Maroselli