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Meet Ferrari’s New 1,000HP Hybrid Monster – SF90 Stradale

Hybrid powertrains are quickly becoming the new standard in the motoring world, with most supercar manufacturers employing them due to the instant torque of electric motors. These days, if your car hasn’t got an electric aspect to its powertrain, it’s not going to be the fastest on the road. Even if it’s a Ferrari.

Ferrari recognised this, and at the very beginning of this turn, produced the La Ferrari – one of three hybrid hypercars which would eventually be known as the Holy Trinity. It was the pinnacle of the current performance technology, but of course, it came at a price. It was massively limited in numbers, and extremely expensive. Ferrari’s new SF90 Stradale is a hybrid, and while it will still be expensive, it will be a full, unlimited number production car. Hell yes.

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Its name stands for the 90th Anniversary of Scuderia Ferrari, and uses the V8 from the 488/F8 model to power its rear wheels. But here come the changes. It has higher performance cylinder heads, and three electric motors – two sitting on the front axle, and a MGUK (Motor Generator Unit, Kinetic) motor sitting between the V8 and a new 8-speed dual-clutch. Yes, you read that correctly, this Ferrari is all-wheel drive.

A 7.9kW battery pack powers the motors which add 217bhp to the 769 made by the engine. That means this car has almost 1,000bhp in total, making it the most powerful road-going Ferrari, ever.

Being the most powerful means we get some pretty steep numbers: 0-62 is achieved in 2.5 seconds, 124 in 6.7, and the car can carry on to a top speed of 212mph. This is despite its quite hefty weight of 1,570kg. You can blame the hybrid system for that inflated figure which comes in at a whopping 270kg by itself.

This car has been built from the ground up by Ferrari – no sharing of chassis here! And because of this, they’re able to implement a whole new range of materials such as carbon fibre, and more efficient aerodynamic devices, both active and passive. For example, its new rear wing contains a ‘shut-off Gurney’ section, which will change its shape to match how the car is being driven. Hard braking and cornering will urge it to lower the centre section to increase downforce, and hard acceleration and straight-line driving will do the opposite to decrease drag.

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Even the wheels are shaped with the flow of air in mind, and at speed will pull high pressure air from the wheel wells. This trickery culminates in a total of 390kg of downforce at 150mph.

Like the majority of cars on the road, it is equipped with different driving modes to alter its characteristics and whether or not the motors are being used for performance or long range. ‘eDrive’ will give the driver 15.5 miles of all-electric range from the motors. But what we want to talk about is ‘Qualifying’ mode. This pushes both the motors and the engine to the limit of performance. We like that a lot.

Ferrari has taken a different approach to this interior, with the focus being on the 16-inch screen that sits behind the wheel and is able to give readouts of any necessary information. And like every other Ferrari, all the important switches and buttons are on the wheel, only a fingertip away.

Prices are currently unknown, but this car is more than likely going to be more expensive than the 812 Superfast, while not as much as the iconic La Ferrari. We will of course keep you updated when we know more.

Deliveries will begin early 2020.

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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