Meet the brand new £3MILLION Ferrari F80 –  its strongest highway automobile ever

Ferrari has unleashed its most powerful road car ever – the F80 – a stunning new F1-derived hybrid with a £3million-plus price tag.

The hypercar, of which just 799 will be made, has eye-catching butterfly doors and unique driver-focussed seating, with a passenger most definitely an optional extra.

The Ferrari F80 has blistering 0 to 62mph acceleration of just 2.15 seconds and a top speed of 217mph, achieved thanks to an awesome 1,200 horse-power.

Ferrari or transformer?The F80 comes with eye-catching butterfly doors 

Exclusive: The Ferrari F80 will cost around £3million and only 799 will be made

The power comes from a combined V6 petrol engine and three battery-powered electric motors. But unlike your suburban hybrid, don’t expect to be doing any electric power local driving or getting an MPG boost.

The F80 is a self-charging hybrid – not a plug-in – and there is no option to drive in zero-emission ‘electric-only’ model.

Launched today, as the pinnacle of the legendary Italian car firm’s line-up, the radical new petrol-electric Ferrari F80 is designed and engineered to be practical and delightfully easy to drive on the road – but a fire-breathing beast on the track.

There is room inside for two, but the focus is resolutely on the driver, with the seating arrangement described as a ‘1+’ – with the single passenger’s seat set back and relegated towards the rear to give priority to the person at the wheel.

Driver focussed: Ferrari describes the seating as 1+ – with the single passenger’s seat set back 

The F80 joins past Ferrari icons such as the GTO, F40 and LaFerrari ‘by showcasing the best that the Maranello-based marque has achieved in terms of technology and performance’, said the firm.

Unveiling the new flagship motor at its headquarters in Maranello, Italy, the company said it had set ‘the new benchmark for innovation and engineering excellence’ adding: ‘The F80 is Ferrari’s new supercar, a car destined to join iconic models from the 1984 GTO to the 2016 LaFerrari Aperta

‘With a combined maximum power of 1200 hp, the V6-hybrid powertrain of the F80 makes it the most powerful road car ever to come out of the gates of the Ferrari factory’.

The company says its new F80 writes ‘a new chapter in the history of legendary supercars bearing the Prancing Horse badge’, is ‘a showcase for the ultimate in technology and performance from the marque’ and represents ‘an extreme development of the internal combustion engine’.

And it adds: ‘As with all the supercars preceding it, the F80 marks the start of a new design era for Ferrari, with a more tense, extreme design language accentuating its race-bred soul.’

From butterfly doors to hybrid power, what F80 buyers get

Butterfly doors (similar to those used on are used on the earlier LaFerrari) open upwards with a flourish thanks to a dual axis rotation hinge mechanism allowing them to rise vertically to an angle of almost 90°.

The doors’ high-performance carbon-fibre sills help protect occupants in the event of a side on smash.

Red hot: Power for the new 1,200 horsepower F80 comes from a 3.0-litre V6 engine and three electric motors

But the beating heart of any Ferrari is its engine. Power for the new 1,200 horsepower F80 comes from the linking of an enhanced 900 horse-power 3.0-litre V6 engine – which at 300hp per litre makes it the most powerful Ferrari engine ever – to three electric motors ( two on the front axle and one on the rear) which add another 300hp.

All operate through an 8-speed dual clutch F1 DCT automatic gearbox with manual override.

The F80’s electric motors are the first developed, tested and manufactured entirely by Ferrari at its Maranello headquarters in Northern Italy with the specific goal of maximising performance and reducing weight.

Their design (with two motors on the front axle and one at the rear of the car) draws directly from Ferrari’s experience in racing.

Ferrari says the engine and its components are closely derived from the 499P racing car which won the last two Le Mans 24 Hours championships. There is also technology carried over from Formula 1.

For the first time ever on a Ferrari there is an electric ‘e-turbo’ which inserts an electric motor between the turbine and compressor of each turbo to boost power for an ‘instantaneous response’ from low down in the rev range.

Presence: If an F80 pulls up behind you on the motorway you’ll know about it – but with less than 800 to be distrubuted around the world there won’t be much chance of that

Performance is boosted by the electric front axle which adds four-wheel drive capability to the ‘power on tap’.

Physical buttons on spokes of the steering wheel return, replacing the full-digital layout used in recent years. Marking a significant sea-change, Ferrari concedes buttons are easier to use and can be instantly identified by touch.

The F80 has the most advanced system for managing vehicle dynamics both on the road or track.

Its new all-round active suspension system using 48v motors creates a ‘supercar soul.’ Meanwhile, 3D printing is used for the first time on a Ferrari road car to make the wishbones.

Ferrari explains: ‘This system fulfils two apparently irreconcilable requirements – the need for a very flat ride on the track, where variations in ride height must be minimised as much as possible, and the need for the compliance to effectively soak up bumps in road surfaces during normal driving.’

The result is ‘outstanding driveability on the road’.

The new F80 is also offered with a 7-year maintenance programme – the first time for a Ferrari supercar.