Ferrari World Finals 2017

“It’s an event that was born more than twenty years ago, in 1993, with the aim of including the season finale of the Corse Clienti department, in particular the final rounds of the major Ferrari Challenge championships (Europe, Asie and America), in a single race weekend. Over time these four days of motorsport activity have become a real celebration of the Ferrari brand both for customers and for enthusiasts from all over the world.  In addition to the “Challenge” you can enjoy the XX Programmes cars on track or listen to the old F1 V8 and V10 engines again thanks to the “F1 Clienti” department or enjoy the end-event show offered by the Scuderia Ferrari itself.”

The 2017 edition was held at the Mugello Circuit, located in the wonderful Tuscan hills about thirty kilometers far from Florence. I have to be honest: that’s not one of my favorite tracks, especially if associated with 4 wheels world. Ok, I’ve never had a passenger ride or drive a car there, so my opinion is worth less than zero. But looking at the trajectories from the outside, as drivers have to measure out both the throttle and the brake in the numerous wide-radius corners, it gives me the idea of not being the track par excellence where to enjoy your car. On the contrary, absolutely fantastic for motorcycles, forced to stay constantly banked, but perhaps boring for cars.

Before heading to the track I stopped for a little tour of the paddock. 2017 was the year in which the 70th Ferrari anniversary  occurred so for the occasion a big marquee was setted up near the pits and filled with the best automotive pieces of Cavallino’s motorsport activity: from all the F1 cars, to the GT cars and prototypes that cut through and won the most prestigious races worldwide.

Among the f1s, we had Niki Lauda’s 312T parked next to the commiserated Gilles Villeneuve’s 312 T4, Alboreto’s F156 Turbo and last Michael Schumaker’s ferrari v10 (f2005)

Even though I didn’t spend much time in the parking lot and in the paddock, it only took a fast  tour during Saturday afternoon to meet some brand new street cars, like the new 812 Superfast and some fancy stuff brought by customers and collectors.

Code Name: XX

Just for let you know, from now on you will find me very biased. The real reason why i love this event is the possibility to see the Ferrari xx in action. You can consider them as supercars, extremely modified for track use, associated with technology, aerodynamic and components coming form f1 or freshly built, which may be introduced on road legal cars. that’s why they’ve been called “laboratory vehicles”. This dream cars are driven by wealthy and lucky owners, which test them during the year around the world in private track days and event organised by Ferrari itself.

What i love about these cars? It’s the engine, strictly v12 na, OR associated with an hybrid system, exclusively built for the last xx, the fxx k

I’ve lost the count of how many of them i’ve seen in the last three years, but i’m sure that among the 38/40 built by ferrari, I filmed and recorded about the 70%. My favourite one is the #17. an electric blue a little atypical for ferrari, but probably the reason why I love it so much.

There were 3 fxx evoluzione, 10 years old car right now, but still the best sounding v12 in the world, which is able to give goose bumbs every time I ear it, and there were many 599xx too, divided in evoluzione or not.

In the end I’m going to talk about the surprise that Ferrari reserved to the enthusiast, presenting the world premiere of the new fxx k, called EVO.

The veichle was a 1.1 scale model, without the engine and mechanic parts, but it was used to introduce to the public the lines and the aerodynamics upgrade present in this new model, for example a huge wing, linked in a central position to the engine hood by a fin which is able to rise the stability in the corner.

Except for the aerodynamics upgrades, the k evo should remain the same talking about engine performances, already delivering about 1050 cv combining the power of the combustion with the electric one.

Everybody on track!

Track activity during these world finals was alternated from free practice, qualifyng and race for ferrari challenge drivers, interval with test sessions reserved for xx program and f1 clienti.

Ferrari challenge Europe, Asia and North America were competing with numerous Ferrari 488 challenge. Each championship had his own final and then there was a final among every championship called indeed finale mondiale (world final).

Only for this year there were two categories: the new 488 turbo and the “old” 458 which are still a na v8. From 2018 will not be possible to use the 458 any more.

I’ve already talked a lot about the xx, but still I want to spend few more words about these symbolic shots. The XXs should be seen, shot and recorded during braking points: the friction and the braking power excercised from the calipers to the carboceramic discs is so intense to rise roughly the temperature of the discs and make them light up in orange. I have no idea about the temperature, but for sure don’t touch!

Thanks to the continues ups and downs that characterize Mugello Circuit, it happens to record or photograph in places where the cars seem to travel to infinity surrounded by the typical green hills and Apennines of Tuscany.

Now it’s time to talk about f1. Thanks to the f1 clienti, few people in the world have the opportunity to buy and drive some of the most prestigious single-seater ever created. In my opinion this is why ¾ of the enthusiasts join the world final, especially after the advent of the new f1 v6 hybrid.

It is indeed an opportunity to listen to the marvellous sounds generated from the v10 and v8 engine from the past seasons of f1. and if you are very lucky, it is possible that some collector decides to take a lap in his v12, for the happiness of anybody on the stands and not.

Unluckily this was not the case, but together with the f1 v8 and v10, some 333sp came down on track, powered by a melodic 4.0 v12. these barchetta’ are the last sport prototype built by Ferrari (but never used in competition officially) for customers who want race in a high level car in the American championship IMSA.

Gran Finale

The culmination of the event comes on Sunday, shortly after lunch, with the usual show organized by Scuderia Ferrari. And here I have to argue a bit about this 2017 edition. The great part of this exhibition is  the opportunity to bring the official drivers, Vettel and Raikkonen, close to the fans with a sort of sprint-race, show full of burnout and pit-stop with the use of old cars of F1. 

This year Ferrari decided to place the World Finals the same weekend of a f1 race. For this reason Ferrari’s enthusiast could not see in action official Ferarri drivers. A part from that, 2017 show has seen on track Giancarlo Fisichella, David Rigon and Andrea Bertolini driving 3 Ferraris f60 f1 from 2009’s Le Mans. Finally to celebrate the 70 anniversary of the brand, every xx and f1 client and some other cars exposed in the paddock line up on the main straight for a groupe picture.

I leave you with this video made in collaboration with my great friend and youtuber italiansupercarvideo.

I know I talked too much, but I hope I haven’t bored you with this article. The 2018 World Finals will take place at the Monza circuit, so in a certain way at my home!