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Flat-out in the £3.6m Ferrari F80 – no V12 required | evo DIARIES
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Aug 11, 2025
Over a decade since the launch of the LaFerrari, Dickie Meaden heads to Italy to get behind the wheel of its successor: the Ferrari F80. It might have half the cylinder count, but does it still have the magic of its iconic V12 predecessors? We hit the road and track to find out. For more, watch our podcast on the Ferrari F80: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz8Vj8uIyho 00:00 Welcome to Misano 01:03 Passenger lap in the Ferrari F80 02:21 Driving on track 05:10 Ferrari F80: tech deep dive 07:55 Driving on road 15:54 Conclusion: no V12 required Subscribe for evo’s latest performance car reviews, head-to-heads and track tests: https://bit.ly/3Ommfyv Follow us: https://twitter.com/evomagazine https://www.facebook.com/evomagazine https://www.instagram.com/officialevomagazine/ https://www.tiktok.com/@evomagazine?
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0:00
Special Series Ferraris come along roughly once a decade and 2025 marks the arrival of the Ferrari
0:20
F80. Uniquely for a Special Series Ferrari, Ferrari have chosen not to launch the car at
0:27
Fiorano. Instead, they've taken us to Misano, which if you're into your super bikes and MotoGP
0:33
you'll know very well. The reason being, bluntly, the F80's kind of outgrown Fiorano, to be honest
0:41
Ferrari claimed a lap time for the F80, 1 minute 15 seconds, which is two whole seconds quicker
0:48
than the SF90XX. But before we got our chance behind the wheel, we were treated to a passenger
0:55
ride alongside Francesco Comand who is one of the lead test and development drivers for F80
1:00
Suffice to say it was a hell of a ride. Passenger rides alongside Ferrari test drivers are always special but I think it
1:59
was really important that Ferrari gave us that opportunity simply because had we
2:04
not had the chance to experience quite what the car was capable of before we
2:09
drove it I don't think any of us present would have had the confidence to push
2:15
quite so hard because the limits of the car and the capabilities of a car are so
2:20
high. So passenger ride done it was then our turn to drive on track we had three
2:25
sessions always with someone alongside and yeah see what you make of it
2:50
On the one hand, it's a supremely easy car to drive, but on the other, it's 1200 horsepower
3:19
1500 kilos or there are about a thousand kilos of dowel force and all kinds of
3:25
systems that just enable you to drive right at the limit so apologies for not
3:30
doing a running commentary I love it I think I probably should be talking to you all the time whilst I'm driving and
3:53
normally I would but I think there's so many nuances there's so so much to take in with
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the car and how it wants to be driven. I think I just, I'll be able to explain myself more clearly
4:08
once I've had a little bit of time for my modest processor
4:14
to make sense of this but yeah I loving it so far It takes a while to get your head around how the F80 really wants to be driven and the key despite it feeling very approachable and civilised in a road car manner
4:28
is you have to get your head in race car mode and that is to nail the braking
4:34
When you start to push in deep into the braking zones, then everything starts to flow
4:40
but you wouldn't believe how late you can brake and how deep you can brake
4:45
and how hard you can work the car, not just under braking in a straight line
4:51
but under braking into a corner. So you're loading the car laterally and longitudinally
4:56
and that's the thing that really takes a leap of faith to trust
5:01
that the front is always nailed but you always think the rear has to let go
5:07
because you're leaning on it so hard. but it never does. By far the most contentious aspect of the F80 is its V6 engine but what a V6
5:15
engine it is. 120 degrees, 900 horsepower so 300 horsepower per litre which makes it the most
5:23
power dense internal combustion engine there is in a series production car. There was a cutaway car
5:28
for us to look at and the compactness of the hybrid system particularly the front axle
5:33
is really impressive. The engine and gearbox are tilted and that's purely to enable Ferrari
5:42
to put a massive diffuser. They said the LaFerrari's diffuser was 600mm long
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In F80, it's 1.8 metres long. So you can see how much downforce
5:54
and airflow they've gained under the car just from that small but really clever tweak
6:00
Other highlights of the V6 are again another first for Ferrari e-turbos so the turbos have an electric drive system
6:10
to help spin them up when there isn't the exhaust gas flow but that enables the turbos themselves
6:17
to be bigger so they can deliver more boost that hybrid system contributes 300 horsepower
6:24
to the internal combustion engine to bring up to the total of 1200 the bulk of that 300 goes
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through the front axle, there are two motors on the front axle so there's torque vectoring which
6:35
in addition to the traction advantages just allows Ferrari to give the car that bit more
6:42
rotation and just give it the stability and bite that it needs on track
6:50
Aerodynamics are another key part of what makes the F80 so special. Like the powertrain it takes
6:57
some inspiration and some ideas from the 499P. So at the front there's a triplane wing hidden
7:04
within that nose. There's also an S duct that draws air under the car up and over. There's
7:11
active aero at the rear which is something the race car isn't allowed. The shape of the car as
7:17
well is designed to aid aerodynamics. If you look in a plan view you can see there's a duct that
7:24
runs either side of the the sort of teardrop shaped canopy and that takes air all the way
7:30
along the flank of the car and into the engine the third pillar if you like of f80 is its active
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suspension it's an evolution of the multi-matic electric driven damper they're mounted in a
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inboard position virtually horizontally but the principle is the same so there's a threaded bar
7:50
which can kind of jack the car unloaded side of the car up
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So the start of day two of driving, typical Ferrari launch, not enough time, too many miles to do
8:02
We were sharing a car, fortunately, with Jethro Bovington who used to be at Evos now at Top Gear
8:08
So the two of us were in the car and we headed off from Mizano circuit into the hills
8:14
I think if I had any misgivings after the track driving yesterday
8:22
was that the car is quite prescriptive it's contained and controlled because it has to be
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it's such a quick car Ferrari say this is faster than a 296 Challenge car on slicks and having driven that car considering this is a very civilised street car on street tyres
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that's pretty quick. And the way it delivers its performance, you need to trust the car, it needs to be stable
8:57
It's not a throw it in and drive it sideways kind of car
9:01
It will do that if you switch everything off. But honestly, the way it puts a lap together, you just want to revel in the precision and the brilliance of the brakes and the way you can lean on it laterally so hard, whilst also leaning on it really hard on the throttle or on the brakes
9:21
It's this sort of three-dimensional performance. What we found on these roads, mixed surfaces, tight twisty, fast open, is pretty much from the moment you get in the car, you feel connected with it
9:34
it just clicks. It doesn't feel particularly big. Visibility is really good from the mirrors and
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those flat sides create a brilliant reference point to place the car so it's easy to drive
9:49
What I wasn't expecting is all the attributes that make it brilliant on the track
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These incredible brakes, absolutely stunning brakes and the transmission and the side slip
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control and and the active dampers and and and they all come together in a different way on the
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road it just feels so agile and nimble and connected rather than controlled and aloof
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and cold which is what i feared the technology would bring i absolutely love this thing
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I think we all made the mistake of getting hung up on those early glimpses of the car on track
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and just how quiet the car was and I think we were all disappointed in that
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But honestly when you're in this car and you have access to this engine
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it's a really special thing. The gearbox as well it just has such..
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ferocity and aggression and immediacy and it performs like no other ferrari before it and that
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is the point and the means by which it achieves that performance is also the point so whilst
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we would get quite hung up on the fact that it isn't a v12 i think now having spent time with
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the car and had time to think about it it would be perverse to fit this car with anything other
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than this engine i said it when i was driving on track and it's so much more true on the road but
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the cockpit is absolute genius i love it it's so simple and paired back and and intimate because
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the passenger seat is set slightly back you don't really have a sense that there is a seat there
12:01
It's quite selfish but as a passenger you get to view the driver at work with your own space around
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you. I've complained about Ferrari switchgear and haptics but strangely this seems more intuitive
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You can pick out the information you want on the dash much more clearly I find and because there's
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nothing else really to distract you your focus is straight through the screen
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which is totally appropriate for a car like this the engine and gearbox oh my god it's so good and it sounds so good inside
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honestly I couldn't care less what it sounds like outside because when you're
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in it my God it suddenly this is the halo car this V6 has been waiting for It not the 499p it not the f1 cars it this this is the car it sounds and feels so potent and angry and fierce and the gearbox is
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you just get this brilliant done shot report on on the upshift and you get the surge of torque
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And the big turbos, so you get all the boost, but you don't get the lag because of the e-turbo technology that help them on their way while they're building up
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Exhaust, pressure. I think perhaps our love affair with og, it will never be over
13:46
but I think this car proves that we could be ready for a new love affair with technology
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it doesn't seem to take anything away to me and I love classic cars and modern classic cars and
14:03
the rawness of their performance and their powertrains and their foibles but this car has
14:10
real personality and it has such epic performance in every situation yeah i'm i'm absolutely smitten
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by it i have to say i think hypercar has somehow been hijacked by cars which have such tightly
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focused performance and capabilities that hypercar is an excuse for compromise and this car
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apparently has no compromises luggage space apart that behind me there is the sum total of your
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luggage space but beyond that i think it's without question the best ferrari of this era that i've
15:07
driven which shouldn't be a surprise because it's three million pounds but what excites me
15:13
is that Ferrari have built this car in the same way they built F40, F50, Enzo, LaFerrari
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It's not a progression of their current road car engine. It had to be a big leap, from which point all their future road cars will flow
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And I think that is arguably the most exciting thing of all
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because if the next generation of Ferrari series production cars is anything like as exciting as
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this we are in for a treat so a few days have passed since I got back from the F80 launch and
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I've needed that time for it all to percolate through my head to be honest sometimes you drive
16:02
a car and you absolutely get your head around it straight away and and the nature of this job is
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you're done and you move on to the next but I keep thinking about it whenever I see a picture
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of it on my phone I'm like oh my god that looks so good I want to drive the car again I want to
16:19
hear the engine again because it sounds fantastic when you're in the car that gear shift is just
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magnificent and the way all of that technology that makes it so quick and so exploitable on a
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racetrack the way that all comes together to enhance the road experience I really wasn't
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expecting that I think we're so used to technology taking away from the tactility and the driver
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involvement and yeah my god if you're if you're one of the lucky 799 F80 owners I envy you more
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than you can imagine
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