I’m driving two 849s. First the red one (pictured) on circuit, fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and an Assetto Fiorano package that makes things 30kg lighter than standard and includes extensions on the rear spoiler (weight and downforce numbers are quoted with it equipped), plus Multimatic dampers.
It is a greasy track, which rather limits grip in every direction. And while I find that the 849 is a car that’s more talkative and engaging than the SF90 before it, it isn’t afraid to move around – but then it does have over a thousand mostly rear-wheeled horsepower.
The steering, at two-turns between locks, is fast but not nervous. There’s steady-state understeer that very rapidly gives way to oversteer, easily caught but, in these conditions, sometimes a little clumsily, because everything but me is very sharp.
Then I drive the yellow car (pictured earlier) on adaptive dampers and Pirelli P Zero R tyres and with no Fiorano performance pack on the road.
It’s still damp, wet at times, but without the compulsion to keep up with pace car driven by a hot-shoed Italian, I find easer to get into a real rhythm. All modern Ferraris ride well and this one is no exception, particularly if you press the ‘bumpy road’ setting on the steering wheel’s rotary manettino switch – still the industry’s easiest and best way to change drive modes. (An obligatory similar compliment is owed the column-mounted gearshift paddles too, by the way.)
With the dampers in soft or firm mode, body control is great, and even on bad roads and whumps it doesn’t feel to me like it will crunch its underbody.
The steering is communicative, quick and light enough to make a big car feel more agile but not hyperactive. And because I’m driving further from the outright limit, I guess the electrickery is shuffling power around less frantically, and the car feels really natural.