Under the skin

The performance gain has really come from the electronics within the car, particularly in the area of engine management, traction and braking

Unlike the newer cars of many of its rivals, the difference between Ferrari’s GT3 Evo version of the 488 and the 2019 version is not immediately obvious. In fact, a squint at the front bumper and front wheel arches will give the only external visual clues that this is a new car, a dive plane inserted into the recess in the bumper ahead of the front wheel while at the rear of the front wheel arch there is some wind tunnel-inspired trickery that was designed to increase frontal downforce. Other than that there is little to give the game away.

The reason for this curious lack of external change is that, according to its head of GT Track Car Development, Ferdinando Cannizzo, Ferrari itself was struggling to figure out what to do in order to update the original car. The previous model was already performing well, was close to the edge of the ‘performance windows’ specified