Steve Sutcliffe: The Ferrari museum in Maranello nestles in a back street just around the corner
from the legendary factory itself. It costs just a few Euros to enter, and contains some
of the rarest, most expensive Ferraris on earth.
The centrepiece to the museum is an entire room dedicated to the design of the new LaFerrari.
Here in an exclusive interview, Ferrari's design director talks a little bit about why
the new LaFerrari is the way it is.
Flavio Manzoni: This is like a manifesto for Ferrari for the next generation. We say we have to
create something, a milestone to simulate the creative process in the next project.
Sutcliffe: Do you have to be an engineer now, as well as a designer, in order to understand?
Flavio: No. I'm a architect, and I'm very passionate about these things. This in a way, is a must.
If you don't understand exactly the specific needs in every part of the car, it's very
difficult to make a car like this also beautiful.
Here, we are ready in probably April or May 2011; this was the first big presentation
with a 1:1 scale model. Three were developed by Ferrari Design and two from Pininfarina.
By the way, one of them is missing, one that I found very beautiful
because I wanted to keep it secret; very different.
Another concept, but still very interesting. That's why we are thinking on some, maybe, some one-off car.
There was a first installation of three of them. One from Pininfarina, two from
Ferrari Design. Ferrari Design; this, we call Manta.
Sutcliffe: Manta, as in manta ray?
Flavio: The fish, yes, which is the model you see over there. This, we call it the Tensostruttura,
is this one.
Sutcliffe: We already know a little bit about the LaFerrari's amazing V12 hybrid power train
and its potentially mind-blowing straight line performance. What about it's radical
but beautiful, styling?
Was the president himself, Mr. Montezemolo, influential in the way the car looks?
Flavio: Mr. Montezemolo wanted something really strong, original, futuristic; not conservative.
We tried to learn a lot about the Ferrari DNA, the Ferrari tradition. I didn't want
any retro feeling. I didn't want any quote or quotation coming from the
past and simply translated into a modern language. I wanted some feeling of the most beautiful
Ferraris, like for instance, the P3, the P4, but not the same, not tradition. A kind of
flair.
Sutcliffe: A spirit, but not a pastiche.
Flavio: Exactly.
Sutcliffe: It had to be a totally modern, contemporary...
Flavio: I don't like...I want to stop retro design. Let's look forward and not always
looking to the past. This is design, this is not style. We must do something functional.
Every millimetre, every single centimetre of this car, this body, is designed to get
the maximum performance in every aspect, so it's normal.
Sutcliffe: That's a little bit about why the LaFerrari looks as breathtaking as it does.
All they need to do now is let us drive it and maybe even compare it with the McLaren
P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder. Fingers, toes, and pretty much everything else crossed that
we can make that happen sometime soon. In the meantime, we can only dream.