2019 Ferrari Portofino on 2040-cars

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Ferrari considering Netflix and esports involvement

Ferrari are considering engaging with Netflix on a second Formula One documentary as well as joining the rest of the 10 teams in the esports world championship, team boss Mattia Binotto said on Friday. Ferrari and champions Mercedes did not cooperate on the successful 'Drive to Survive' 10-part fly-on-the-wall series filmed by Netflix last season, arguing that they needed to focus on the title battle. When their cars or drivers did feature, it was from the official world feed television footage. "It's certainly an interesting program. We were not participating last season as Ferrari," Binotto told reporters at the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 21 race championship. "We are considering it at the moment. We have not taken our final decision, so it's something we will do in the next few weeks." Formula One's managing director Sean Bratches said this month that he expected a second series to go ahead, with filming already underway. Ferrari are the only ones without a presence in the official F1 esports championship, which is in its third season and involves the teams only later in the year. Mercedes won both titles last year, as in the real world. Binotto said Ferrari's stance on that could change as well. "Esport is increasing in terms of interest and certainly as Ferrari we are looking seriously into it," he said. "We are not yet fully committed to the program but it's something where the discussions are ongoing and we will very soon make our own decision."

Ferrari testing 458 Challenge Evoluzione at Mugello

Ferrari makes road cars, it makes racecars, and it makes road cars into racecars. The 458 Challenge falls into the latter category, transforming the 458 Italia into the basis for Maranello's one-make spec racing series. It replaced the F430 Challenge in 2011, which in turn followed the 360 Challenge, F355 Challenge and 348 Challenge that started it all in the mid-90s.
Now the Prancing Horse marque is set to move the game forward again with the revised 458 Challenge Evoluzione. Seen here undergoing testing at what could be any tree-lined circuit but is likely Mugello (which Ferrari just happens to own in addition to the Fiorano test track at the factory), the 458 Challenge Evoluzione takes a step further with a new aerodynamics package.
Other changes will likely be nominal, and Ferrari will probably offer existing customer racers the option of upgrading to stay at the front of the pack instead of replacing their $300k racers entirely. One way or another, Ferrari is set to unveil the 458 Challenge Evoluzione, also at Mugello, after the conclusion this year's Finali Mondiali, the event that ties up the end of Ferrari Challenge series from around the world next week.

Ferrari wants more hybrids to lift volume to 10,000 cars a year

Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne is looking towards hybridization as the way of bumping the Italian automaker's production figures to 10,000 vehicles per year by 2025, reports Automotive News. To do this, Marchionne plans to hybridize every vehicle with a Ferrari badge starting in 2019. As Automotive News points out, Ferrari is dedicated to delivering roughly 8,000 vehicles this year. The automaker has plans in place to raise that figure to 9,000 cars by 2019. Raising its volume numbers to 10,000 vehicles a year, though, would require Ferrari to meet certain fuel economy and emissions requirements, which it currently does not have to do, reports Automotive News. According to Automotive News, in addition to producing more hybrids, Marchionne is also interested in producing Ferraris that appeal to a larger demographic, helping to increase sales. As Automotive News points out, the recent biturbo V8 GTC4Lusso T is an example of this trend, being both more useable and less expensive than its V12 counterpart. Performance will still be a priority. The CEO believes hybrid powertrains are a way to "yield additional performance," reports Automotive News. This isn't the first time Marchionne has spoken about increasing Ferrari's production as the CEO hinted at upping the automaker's output to 10,000 vehicles annually back in 2014. At that time, Marchionne also revealed that Ferrari would come out with a new car every year between 2014 and 2018. More recently, Ferrari announced plans to increase production to approximately 9,000 cars per year by 2019. Related Video: