Time Machine

Tradition and technology are often seen as opposing forces. Yet the two elements have always formed a powerful union in the Prancing Horse’s Special Series cars – never more vividly than in the F80, which has been crowned Hypercar of the Year at the 2026 Top Gear Awards.

Rakish and dramatic, the sixth chapter in Maranello’s remarkable Supercar story combines the compelling function of a racing car with flowing, sculptured beauty. That feeling extends to the interior, designed around a ‘1+’ concept that balances optimum aerodynamic efficiency whilst packaging driver and passenger in a truly special cockpit. 

The very latest automotive technologies define the F80’s character and enable its freakish capability. You might think that borrowing from both the Ferrari Formula One and World Endurance Championship programmes would be more than enough, but the F80 goes beyond their strict regulations to create a truly contemporary Supercar – one very much designed and developed for the road, but also to excel on track.

Winner of Top Gear magazine's Hypercar of the Year award, the F80 is the most powerful and advanced Ferrari ever built – a 1,200 cv road car informed by Le Mans and F1 technology 

Located on Italy’s Adriatic coast, Misano is a perfect venue to experience the new Supercar. With a challenging mix of tight hairpins, long straights, high-speed curves and big braking zones it plays to all the F80’s strengths.

It should be daunting to take a 1,200 cv, 350km/h supercar on a circuit, but the F80 is supremely simple to drive. The challenge is not in operating the machine, which has been honed to perfection, but in summoning the belief that you can brake so late and carry so much speed into corners.

Like its driver, the F80 also adapts. Thanks to a new Boost Optimisation system, the F80 actually learns the circuit, analyses its corners, and deploys the hybrid powertrain’s energy at optimum points. When using Performance mode, battery deployment and regen are managed to deliver maximum sustainable performance lap-after-lap; in Qualifying mode all available energy is deployed over one ferocious lap. 

The speed is mind-bending with huge-corner exit thrust delivered by internal combustion and battery power. The soundtrack is fabulous, too, the V6’s distinctive gruff growl building to a serrated bark as it approaches the 9,200rpm redline. Pull for the next gear and there’s a sharp crack like a rifle shot as the DCT completes the upshift. 

With its sweeping curves, long straights and intimidating braking zones, Misano lets the V6 hybrid supercar reveal its true potential 

It’s the same sensory overload in the braking zones as the combined might of the F80’s new Brembo CCM-R Plus brakes and ABS Evo control system. It simply shouldn’t be possible to simultaneously pull such huge longitudinal and lateral g-force under braking, but the front-end remains nailed to your chosen line whilst the rear leans on apparently limitless grip. Active suspension is key, an evolution of the Multimatic system first seen on the Purosangue. Body roll and dive under braking are almost eradicated, the suspension allowing just enough movement for you to feel how hard the car is working and what’s left in reserve. 

The final piece of the F80’s foundation technology is its active aerodynamics. Heavily influenced by learnings from the 499P Hypercar programme, the F80 generates 1,050 kilos of downforce at 250km/h via a radical combination of tri-plane S-duct and Active Reverse Gurney flap at the front, and a huge active rear wing that can adjust through 11 degrees to maximise downforce or reduce drag.

It takes a few laps to convince yourself it’s possible, but eventually you summon the courage to take Misano’s ultra-fast kink with barely a lift of the throttle – slicing through at 250km/h with absolute stability, as though the car is running racing slicks, not Michelin Pilot Cup 2R street tyres. 

It is more than 40 years since Ferrari began its Special-Series journey with the exquisite GTO. Since then, the F40, F50, Enzo, LaFerrari and now the F80 have all played their part in shaping Maranello’s series-production future. The adventure continues.