FLYING OVER THE OCEANS

From concept to construction, Ferrari Hypersail is making swift progress. The team has come together, building is underway in the shipyard, and Hypersail Team Principal Giovanni Soldini is ready to take the helm. Three years after the project got the green light, these are exciting times.

Reflecting on the very first Hypersail meeting, the venture’s Chief Technology Officer Matteo Lanzavecchia recalls: “The first thing we had to do was assemble a team with the skills necessary for this kind of project. Successively, and this is perhaps the most important part, we had to guarantee a constant transfer of know-how from the world of sports cars to the world of Hypersail, and – later – from the world of Hypersail to the world of sports cars.”

Watch to learn more about the origins and progress of the Hypersail project

While the project is very much about speed and tech transfer, it’s also about endurance: successfully and safely tackling whatever challenge – natural and mechanical – gets thrown the crew’s way as the full-foiling behemoth literally ‘flies’ above and across the ocean. Indeed, the huge yacht – 30 metres long and 20 metres wide – is designed to withstand the elements at their fiercest. “This type of boat aims to take part in races that – in automotive terms – are closer to endurance races, like the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Paris-Dakar,” points out Marco Ribigini, Hypersail Team Leader. (It’s not a coincidence that the boat’s name contains the word “hyper”, as in “hypercar”…).

Above all, Hypersail is about pushing the limits. “I believe the aim of this project is to try something that has never been done before, to ‘throw the heart past the obstacles’, as we say in Italian when we mean to try to reach beyond our limits,” concludes Soldini, who will be the helmsman of this latest Ferrari racer.