Why the Brakes Are the Most Impressive Thing About the Ferrari SF90 Stradale

Why the Brakes Are the Most Impressive Thing About the Ferrari SF90 Stradale

Of all the mind-blowing things about the Ferrari SF90 Stradale, it's the brakes that got me. Or to be more accurate, the braking system, because being a hybrid, regenerative braking from the electric motors helps slow the car down in concert with pad and disc. Of course, this sort of "blended" braking is nothing new in the world of hybrids, but the way Ferrari manages it is astonishing. Why the Brakes Are the Most Impressive Thing About the Ferrari SF90 Stradale

This summer I had the extremely unique opportunity of driving an SF90 with the optional Assetto Fiorano pack around Ferrari's private test track, which of course is the circuit it's named for. Around the tight, fast circuit, the SF90 is stupendously fast and far easier to drive than a 986-hp mid-engine car should be. Why the Brakes Are the Most Impressive Thing About the Ferrari SF90 Stradale

The dual front motors give the SF90 almost supernatural cornering ability as each wheel can be over- or underdriven to change the car's cornering line. To be fast in an SF90, get on throttle early and often and let the systems sort everything out.

Those front motors disengage above 124 mph because that's as quick as they can spin, and they wouldn't contribute much to cornering at these speeds. Why the Brakes Are the Most Impressive Thing About the Ferrari SF90 Stradale

At Fiorano, Ferrari had us come off throttle for a few hundred feet each lap for some combination of safety and noise regulations. But there was still enough runway to hit 140 before braking into Turn 1. Raffaele de Simone, Ferrari's chief test driver, says he's seeing close to 170 there on really fast laps.

When you hit the brakes in an SF90 Stradale beyond 124 mph, you get a combination of traditional friction braking and regen from the rear electric motor, which sits between the engine and transmission. But as you dip below that 124-mph threshold, the car starts to blend in regen from the front motors in favor of the rear motor. The truly astounding thing is that you can't feel any of this happening.

In fact, I didn't think about regenerative braking once while lapping the SF90. I sat down with Marco Carnà, vehicle dynamics engineer for the SF90, to look over the data from my lap; he was the one who pointed out what was happening under braking. Depending on a number of factors, the car is constantly tweaking its blend of regen from front and rear motors and pad-meets-disc.

So Why the Brakes Are the Most Impressive Thing About the Ferrari SF90 Stradale