Ferrari SF90 Stradale 2020 first drive

Performance feels every bit as towering as Ferrari’s claimed 6.7sec 0-124mph time suggests it should, with the tightened ratios of the new gearbox making it easier to indulge the V8’s sonorous enthusiasm for its top end. On any public road, the accelerator pedal will reach its stop only rarely and be held there for brief periods, despite the four-wheel drive system’s impressive ability to digest the full output. Even using little more than half-throttle and short-shifting far below the 8000rpm redline makes the SF90 feel subjectively faster than many bona fide supercars. Indeed, it shifts even more quickly and cleanly than Ferrari’s already lightning-fast seven-speed unit.

While the SF90’s structure is primarily aluminium, it uses a carbonfibre rear bulkhead, with diligent weight saving meaning the penalty for the 72kg battery, motors and control gear has been minimised. So, at an official 1570kg dry (once you tick the box for every available lightweight option), it carries an additional 240kg over a (similarly specified) F8, but that difference is rarely discernible.

The steering is as deadly accurate as that of every modern Ferrari, and only attacking the tightest hairpins at grossly optimistic speeds produces any sensation through the steering of power sharing the front wheels as the torque vectoring fights to keep the tyres biting. Yet the ride actually feels plusher than the Ferrari norm over rougher roads, with outstanding control of the body’s motions; the SF90 rides out bumps and compressions that had me pre-winced for the expensive sound of carbonfibre on Tarmac. A front axle lifter is optional but, rarely for a modern supercar, probably not an essentially ticked box.

A more worrisome technical first is the arrival of braking by wire on a Ferrari road car. The engineers say this was essential, given the need to blend the effort of the vast Brembo carbonfibre discs with the high levels of regenerative braking through the motors. The SF90’s brake pedal has a very short travel, with pressure on it effectively creating a demand for a certain level of retardation that the system then works to deliver in the best way possible.

Only very gentle pressure is needed at urban speeds, which initially seems incongruous. But it does start to feel much more natural under harder use, and I was fully acclimatised after a couple of hours. The SF90’s Hybrid mode is more of a brain-fry; the suddenness with which the engine cuts in and out takes some getting used to. In a well-insulated mainstream plug-in hybrid, you rarely notice combustion kick in, but this transition from near silence to raucous V8 is startling.

From the outside, the SF90’s aerodynamically sculpted shape is maybe a little short on the drama normally associated with Ferrari’s range-toppers. But with an excellent form-following-function excuse, the interior feels markedly plusher than those of Ferrari’s lesser offerings. Most functions are controlled through touch-sensitive panels, with the 16in instrument display offering various modes and configurations.

My test car had been given a full carbonfibre trim workout, but there were a couple of ergonomic niggles: the intricately moulded dashboard top causes lots of windscreen reflections and the polished metal gate for the auto/manual, reverse and launch control selectors proved dazzling in bright Italian sunlight. The climate control also has a noisy fan and had to work hard to keep the cabin cool in low-30deg C ambient temperatures.

None of that is going to put anyone off, of course – and the SF90 is also a composed cruiser with a modest but segment-appropriate amount of luggage space under the front bonnet (plus a view of the metal RAC-e controller beneath glass, as with the engine at the back).

While the Stradale suffix makes the SF90’s road-going priorities clear, I still got the chance to experience it on Ferrari’s famous test track, being sent out to chase factory test driver Fabrizio Toschi in a hard-worked prototype. I’ve been to Fiorano several times, but the circuit has never felt so compact, with the brutality of the SF90’s acceleration shortening the longest straights like nothing else I’ve experienced here.