2021 Ferrari SF90 Spider Assetto Fiorano review: Quick drive

• What we love
• What we don’t

It’s a super-fast supercar, and I’m here to tell you why a convertible is the best Ferrari you can drive, or perhaps even buy.

What we love

The retractable hardtop adds to the driving experience

Its outright power and performance are astonishing no matter the driving mode

Interior comfort and advanced technology

What we don’t

Not equipped with Android Auto

Assetto Fiorano package is costly

Almost too fast to enjoy on our roads

Getting a call-up in this job to drive a supercar is a pretty special feeling. It doesn’t come across the desk often, but when it does, the answer is always the same – ‘It’s a yes from me’.

Then driving it is just something else – a pinch-yourself kind of moment. No matter how many cars I’ve driven of this calibre, the goosebumps don’t go away, and neither does the fear.

I got invited to the Ferrari SF90 Spider media drive day on behalf of Drive. I only got the car for a limited time – three hours to be exact – and the destination was the Mornington Peninsula.

The 2021 Ferrari SF90 Spider is an all-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid. It boasts a brand-new engine design and fits three electric motors, including one for the rear axle, plus one for each front wheel.

It’s also the most powerful V8 produced by the brand packing a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8, which alone is capable of 574kW of power at 7500rpm and 800Nm of torque at 6000rpm, on the way to an 8000rpm redline. The electric motors produce 162kW, making a combined total of 736kW.

The Spider is 100kg heavier than the Stradale (1670kg), but the weight doesn’t hinder its performance in the slightest, as this is the fastest production-series convertible ever.

Ferrari claims a 0–100km/h sprint time of 2.5 seconds. Just incredible! To put this into context, that’s quicker than LaFerrari, the McLaren Senna, and the Lamborghini SC20.

The Ferrari SF90 Spider kicks off at $768,000 plus on-road costs, but the one that I got my hands on was extra special and came complete with all the bells and whistles.

This model included the Assetto Fiorano package – essentially a track package that deducts 30kg from the car’s kerb weight, and achieved by replacing the exhaust with a lighter titanium system, along with the addition of carbon fibre that substitutes panels and parts of the underbody.

This package isn’t a cheap addition, rumoured to be a six-figure option, and the one I drove was the only model in Australia kitted up with this. Lucky me.

Along with this, the spec sheet wasn’t short of options – 36 of them to be exact. Some of which include anti-stone-chipping film, ‘Scuderia Ferrari’ shields, coloured mats with logo, Daytona racing seats, red brake callipers, two-tone body painting and stripe, carbon-fibre wheels and Apple CarPlay, just to name a few.

Ferrari doesn’t share the individual costs for options, but I can tell you the on-test model price, a whopping $929,888 plus on-roads. Suffice to say, you can see why I would feel a little nervy getting behind the wheel of such expensive machinery.

But I couldn’t go on this adventure alone, because why would you want to embark on a journey this good on your lonesome?

Enter our photographer, Ted Airey – and full disclosure, while I love his company, I also invited him because this drive deserved some cool pics. Fellow journalist, Tom Fraser, also jumped on the bandwagon, offering his time to assist where needed. Bless him.

My brief – to drive the car and enjoy it first and foremost, but I’m here to tell you why a convertible Ferrari is the best you can drive and potentially even buy.

If you’ve read many of my previous articles, you may have seen that I’ve already been fortunate enough to drive a few prancing horses in my time.

This is my sixth. Which may not sound like a lot, but to put this into context, I’ve been in motoring for a few years now and have never been behind the wheel of a Lamborghini or Aston Martin – both competitors of the Ferrari brand.

I’d already had a technical briefing the night prior to the drive as they take these tests seriously. And thankfully, I’d just driven the Roma, which has very similar features inside, including the touch elements and the open-gate shifter.

These aren’t features that you get used to on one drive. It does take time to familiarise yourself with any technology in a brand-new car.

I entered the showroom and the beast was ready and waiting. I’d seen photos of this particular spec prior and wasn’t sold on the two-tone stripe, but like with most things, they look so much better in real life.

So, after seeing it in the flesh, I thought it looked absolutely stunning. I mean, it’s a million-dollar supercar, how could it not! I may be biased because I do love a Ferrari, but I’m keen to hear what you all think about its appearance.

Time was of the essence, so I jumped in, quickly paired my phone and was on my way. I should have spent more time getting my seating position right, though, as after fiddling around with the seat, I didn’t realise that the adjustment wouldn’t be electric.

After some tweaking, I was set. I always run cold, and I mean always, but in this car I didn’t care. In this instance it was go hard or go home, and I was committed to keeping this roof off for the experience.

That’s something I loved so much about the Portofino I’d already driven, and an element that the Roma was missing for me – the ability to cruise with the roof off. Because, I’m sorry, but if you’re spending an obscene amount of money, don’t you want every option possible?

First impressions of this supercar, simple, it’s super quick! An absolute pocket rocket. You only have to put your foot on the throttle for a brief moment and, just like that, it responds and just wants to fly away.

I got right onto the freeway to head south to the Mornington Peninsula. It didn’t take long for me to feel at one with the car. I mean, the fear of driving a car with this price tag that isn’t yours never goes away, but it’s such a refined drive and incredibly agile along the freeway.

This Ferrari has two manettinos or drive-mode switches. To the right is the original, which you can switch between Sport, Race, and CT (traction control) Off – an option that should really be reserved for the track.

To the left is the e-manettino, which allows you to control your hybrid powertrain. This gives you a choice of eDrive, for your pure-electric drive, along with Hybrid, Performance and Qualify.

I opted to cruise down the freeway in a bit of everything just to cover all bases, but my standard drive mode was mainly set to Sport.

Clicking it into EV mode, the car is blistering and steering remains tactile. There’s a range of 25km available when it’s acting on electric power alone, but the system does allow the car to recharge and boost those kilometres when under braking.

I’m not going to lie, but it’s quite a bizarre feeling cruising in a Ferrari and not being able to hear the roar from the engine, but the power doesn’t dissipate in the slightest.

Switching into Hybrid, the transition is smooth and the system reacts swiftly. It’s not a mode that I as a driver enjoy the most. Not that the power isn’t there, but the randomness of switching between the roar of the petrol engine and the almost silent electric motor is a little disconcerting.

I mean, this is a supercar. It’s completely different to cruising around in an everyday Toyota hybrid.

Performance and Qualify unleash that beautifully engineered V8, and this is when that emotion Ferrari keeps talking about really kicks in. It just makes you smile, at times I even heard myself screaming out a few “woo hoos!”.

Especially when in Qualify mode, it gets to speed so quickly that you hardly have time to prepare yourself, and it greets you with those magical acoustics you’d expect from a perfectly arranged V8 engine.

Now flying down the three freeways to get me to my location (at the speed limit, I might add) was utterly sensational, more so with the roof down. Granted, I did reach for the heater on a few occasions as 24 degrees in Melbourne isn’t as warm as you may think.

But finally, getting onto some more winding roads is where you can really begin to enjoy this car more. Goodbye automatic mode and straight into manual and paddle shifters engaged for that added sensation.

The eight-speed gearbox is a delight – smooth and predictable with seamless shifts between the gears, plus you get that extra thrill when the shift lights on the steering wheel flash at you. No matter the gear, even in the lower rev range, that robust engine will continue to startle and impress you.

With its first-class dynamic control system, namely torque vectoring, this car has your back coming out of corners. The Spider danced through the bends up Martha Cove. Sure, there were moments when it got a tad tail-happy, but the traction is so precise that you quickly gain confidence when heading through twists and turns.

It’s these moments, when you’re enjoying twisty roads, but not going super fast, when you realise that you don’t need to sprint to get enjoyment out of this car. The steering of the Spider is both light and direct, and capable of landing wherever you point it to go.

However, and this is a real blunder, whenever you want to make a left turn and hit that indicator on the steering wheel, you’re greeted by Ferrari’s voice-activation system. The touchpad is so close to the button that I can’t recall a time I didn’t accidentally press it.

So while trying to focus hard on the drive, pedestrians may have heard me talking to myself constantly telling the car that “I don’t want anything” or “Cancel”. And even though I speak some Italian, it just didn’t want to understand me. It really is annoying.

While the suspension is firm thanks to the Assetto Fiorano package, I did still get thrown around a little more than expected on some of the harsher bumps. A circumstance that can all be made better by engaging bumpy mode on the manettino (I didn’t have time to think to set this).

You do get more of a hardcore and sporty drive with this package, and it also gives you automatic dampers, but one thing you need to learn to sacrifice is not having the front axle lift.

This means that the utmost care needs to be taken when driving over speed humps and into car parks – more so than you would already do when in any sports car. People may have been laughing on the inside down the main strip in Mornington, but I literally took those speed humps at 5km/h.

And it wasn’t just my slow speed that caused heads to turn, this car got plenty of beeps, thumbs-up and attention all throughout town. That’s why you keep the roof down so you can have conversations with people stopped at the traffic lights, right? In a safe manner, of course.

I had a bunch of people wanting to take photos of the car and asking me all about it. Don’t worry, I wasn’t a pretender, as they were all well aware that it wasn’t in fact mine. My response was “Maybe one day”.

The other thing I need to tell you about is the cabin of this car. It made for a comfortable drive with the Daytona race seats that hug your body perfectly and there are lavish touches throughout, including the carbon fibre, literally everywhere, mixed with leather and Alcantara.

There’s also the amount of storage you’d expect in this kind of supercar. I had room for my coffee, there’s a dedicated spot for the key, and some storage cubbies throughout. Not your best friend for a road trip, but enough for your daily cruise.

I already mentioned the touchpad and it is the case for everything you need – climate controls, calls, and voice activation. While playing music, the volume scroll lives just behind the steering wheel within easy reach, along with the up and down selector.

It’s all a part of Ferrari’s philosophy of eyes on the road, hands on the wheel. Something I’m slowly getting used to and I do appreciate – well, except for that voice-command selector.

Some of the standard safety features include ABS/EBD performance with energy regeneration, front, passenger and side airbags, anti-slip regulator, electronic power steering and electronic side-slip control.

An advanced front lighting system and rear parking camera were fitted to this car as an option, as was Apple CarPlay. Sorry Android users but there’s no Android Auto.

So, after a couple of hours of cruising, testing, selfies and taking in the fresh air, it was time to head back to Ferrari Melbourne.

I went through the entire trip with the roof down. It really does make the drive that much more fun. The roof only takes 14 seconds to deploy, which can be done up to 45km/h while driving.

Ferrari promises optimal noise insulation and protection once open, which I can vouch for. All I needed was my heater pumping and other than that, saying it was pleasant is an understatement.

While this was one of the most incredible experiences, I have to question if I would want to drive this on public roads everyday. For me, it’s so fast to the point where to enjoy it properly I’d need to be visiting a track frequently.

Ferrari has, however, done a superb job at engineering this car to ensure optimal dynamics and state-of-the-art performance. There’s absolutely no doubting those elements.

What’s more, if I ever buy a Ferrari, I’ll invest in more puffer jackets as it will most certainly be a hardtop convertible.

Keyword: 2021 Ferrari SF90 Spider Assetto Fiorano review: Quick drive