This new Ferrari F76 is a hypercar that no one will get to drive
It’s fair to say that Ferrari’s most recent releases haven’t exactly been unanimously popular with petrolheads worldwide, and this Ferrari F76 is likely to continue that trend.
Why so sure? I hear you ask. Well, this is a Ferrari that even the wealthiest of billionaires won’t be able to take out on the road, as it is, in fact, an NFT. As someone who believed that NFTs died a death some time ago following the ridiculous trend that saw people buying a JPEG of a cartoon monkey for the cost of a country home, Ferrari’s latest announcement has both confused and disappointed me in equal measure.
That is because, style-wise at least, the F76 is just the sort of whacky design that would have put it in a category as a worthy LaFerrari successor. There’s no playing it safe here with a design curated from wind tunnel analysis (although aerodynamically it looks no slouch) and it’s just the sort of thing you’d have as a poster in your room as a kid. It is the work of the Ferrari Styling Centre led by Flavio Manzoni, and aims to act as a design manifesto to prefigure Ferrari shapes of the future, where form, function and performance will merge as a ‘single organism’.
The F76 name has historical significance to Ferrari as it pays homage to the Prancing Horse’s first victory at Le Mans 76 years ago with Luigi Chinetti and Lord Selsdon behind the wheel of a 166 MM barchetta.
While Ferrari’s performances in Formula 1 during the past few years could be generously described as ‘mixed’, it is the World Endurance Championship (WEC), and more specifically, Le Mans, that has proved to be a happy hunting ground, with the Maranello-based team taking home the victory on the past three occasions.
It is unfortunate, therefore, that we’ll never know how a track-bred F76 would ever get on in the famous 24 hour race, as it will never head into production. Instead, it will be a digital asset to ‘support’ the 499P competing in the WEC, apparently allowing ‘clients to experience this journey alongside the official team’.
What do you think of the F76?
words: Mike Booth
pictures: Ferrari