Ferrari California on 2040-cars

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2013 Ferrari FF [w/video]

The World's Fastest Four-Passenger is Frickin' Fabulous
"I miss my mommy."
Those frightened words floated from the mouth of a five-year-old boy strapped snugly into a booster seat in the backseat of the Ferrari FF I was piloting. Moments earlier, his father had allowed me to take him, and his two brothers, for their first ride in a supercar, and I had apparently failed miserably.

Ferrari shows off SF90's four powertrain modes in new video

The Ferrari SF90 is the newest foal in the Maranello stable, and Ferrari continues to parade it for the crowds. A new video shows how the plug-in hybrid's four powertrain modes work, controlled by buttons on the lower left side of the steering wheel. The greenest mode gets a button marked "eD," for electric driving (now that Smart's effectively dead here, someone had to pick up the eD moniker). In that guise, the 7.9-kWh battery mounted transversely behind the seats sends energy to the two e-motors up front, and can power the SF90 for up to 15 miles as a front-wheel-drive coupe. Next up, the "H" button turns the SF90 into a hybrid, with a priority on maximum efficiency. The battery sends its power to the dual e-motors in front and the third e-motor between the engine and transmission, with the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 firing to work the rear wheels as well. Under low loads, the control logic can switch from Hybrid mode to pure electric driving, then reengage the ICE on demand. Above that, a checkered flag icon represents Performance mode. Here, the ICE is always running, with the priority on keeping the battery charged. The gutsiest mode gets a clock icon, representing Qualify. This extracts all the performance available, the video indicating this is where the 1,000 CV, or 986 horsepower, comes into play. It isn't clear if Qualify is the only mode that unlocks peak horsepower, of if Performance can do so as well. In fact, we're still not sure what the SF90's effective horsepower is; Ferrari added the V8's 769 hp to the three e-motors' 217 hp to reach that total output figure, which isn't how this is usually done. We'll undoubtedly get more answers once the first drives hit the interwebs. We already have a lot of questions about that intense steering wheel and its "View Max" touch controller, and the rather comely 16-inch display.

Race recap: 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is Germany rising as sun sets

Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg Rosberg doesn't attribute anything mystical to the form that got him ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. He said simply, "Before it was close in the other direction, now it's close in this direction." Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda went further, saying Rosberg's "brain has switched." Under the desert spotlights it switched so far ahead that Lewis Hamilton qualified nearly four tenths behind the German. Kimi Raikkonen flew the scarlet for Ferrari in third position. Being three spots ahead of Valtteri Bottas gave Raikkonen a huge advantage in locking up fourth position in the driver's championship. Even if he doesn't care about it, as he's publicly stated, Ferrari probably does. Teammate Sebastian Vettel was classified 16th after the German slowed down after making a mistake on his final hot lap, and neither he nor his engineer realized how quickly times were falling on a cooling track. He'd be promoted to 15th when Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was penalized for a gearbox change. Sergio Perez knocked it out of the park for Sahara Force India, claiming fourth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in fifth for Infiniti Red Bull Racing. Williams driver Bottas was in sixth, in front of the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the second Williams of Felipe Massa in eighth. Daniil Kvyat ensured both Red Bulls were in the top 10 with his ninth position, and Carlos Sainz got the upper hand in qualifying over his Toro Rosso teammate Max Verstappen for the final time this year, rounding out the top 10. Beyond Nico Rosberg's mind, one of his weaknesses was his slow starts. Those are stronger, too, the German tearing off away from the field when the lights went out. Hamilton bogged enough to have to defend from Perez behind, the Mexican trying to slide between Hamilton and Raikkonen on the run to the first corner. Rosberg held the lead into Turn 1 and likewise held it through Turn 21 on the last lap of the race, only ceding it during pit stops. Rosberg's 14th victory gets him level with Graham Hill on the wins list – on the anniversary of Hill's death in a plane crash – and marks the first time in his 10-year F1 career that he's won three races in a row. More proof of his strength: the last few races we haven't heard Rosberg ask for regular updates about what Hamilton's doing, he just drives. Hamilton gave it his best but that wasn't enough.