A new Ferrari to wrap your brain around: meet the 710bhp, 211mph F8

This is the new Ferrari F8 Tributo. Not only the most powerful mid-engined V8 Ferrari supercar in history, but also a rosso-liveried haymaker aimed at Woking. Watch out 720S: the 488’s successor is here.

It’s a bit gorgeous, isn’t it? Ferrari tells us this car is the first to wear a new design language exploring the company’s high watermarks of aero excellence and being batsh*t quick. Mission accomplished, we’d proffer.

So, the F8 Tributo houses the same 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 as that 488 – an engine Ferrari doesn’t hesitate to remind us won International Engine of the Year Awards three years on the trot, and last year took the title of best engine of the last two decades. It’s quite good.

It pumps out 710bhp – just like the 720S – which is 50bhp more than the 488, “without the slightest hint of turbo lag”. Understatement there: it’ll record 0-62mph in 2.9s, 0-124mph in 7.8s and a top speed of 211mph.

Elsewhere, Ferrari’s ability to flatter yet more ham-fistedness continues with the latest version of ‘Slide Slip Control’ and ‘Dynamic Enhancer’, the latter acting on the ‘Race’ position, making “performance on the limit easier to reach and control for a greater number of drivers”. The manettino is now mounted on a smaller steering wheel, too.

It’s 40kg lighter than the 488 (weighing 1,330kg dry), and wears a new aero pack that borrows ideas from the 488 Pista for better heat management. The S-Duct – again, another Pista refugee – has been redesigned for F8 deployment, adding 15 per cent to the overall increase in downforce over the regular 488. There are new, slimmer LED headlights, and while they’ve shrunk, space has opened up for brake cooling ducts, and better air flow around the front.

Swing around the back, and there’s a special treat: the rear screen that shows off the engine features louvres, just like… yep, the Ferrari F40. While they actually have a job to do (removing hot air from the bay), they also look marvellous. The blown spoiler also creates yet more downforce over the old car, wrapping around the rear lights, and we’re now back to Ferraris with twin-clusters.

Inside, Ferrari has redesigned bits of the cockpit, and there’s a new generation of ‘Human Machine Interface’. Good luck to the passenger attempting to prod the touchscreen mounted ahead of them on the dashboard.

It’s been roughly six months since Ferrari showed us the F8 Tributo, the 710-horsepower, 568 lb-ft successor to the 488 GTB, at Geneva. Now, just in time for Frankfurt, we’ve finally been shown its drop-top sibling, the F8 Spider

The F8 Spider shares much with the Tributo, including its 3.9 liter twin-turbocharged V8, with the major difference between the two cars being the flip-over retractable hardtop that folds back over the motor.

Motor1 reports that the F8 Spider is 20 pounds lighter than the 488 Spider, the car it replaces, which isn’t a huge weight reduction but the F8 more than makes up for it with fifty 50 hp and aerodynamics from the F8 Tributo which Ferrari say are more than 10% better than the outgoing car’s. Ferrari says the F8 Spider can hit 62 mph in 2.9 seconds and will top out at 211.

These are all substantial gains, but even Ferrari is honest when it describes this car as an “evolution of the species.” Both the F8 Spider and the F8 Tributo coupe are essentially reengineered versions of the same basic design that stretches back to 2009's 458. Still, I think Ferrari has managed to really do something special with the F8 Spider. I’m a big fan of the way the narrow headlamps look from head on, and the rear treatment, with the quad taillights and inward fold, is very reminiscent of the Lotus Elise, to me at least.

No pricing or sales information is available yet, but should be forthcoming.