LaFerrari Replacement Won't Even Try To Compete With AMG Project 1

The Mercedes-AMG Project 1 hypercar and its Aston Martin counterpart, the Valkyrie, both threaten to overwhelm the current crop of hybrid hypercars using Formula 1 technology. Now, we know F1 technology is referenced as a plug to claim an automaker's car is faster than everyone else's, and to some extent, almost every car on the road today features some form of distilled F1 technology. What's different about the Aston Martin's and AMG's hypercars is that the balance is heavily skewed towards F1 and less towards usability.

Using a high-revving engine built for the race track, the Project 1will suffer from catastrophic engine failureif it's power plant is not replaced after 31,000 miles, making it less than optimal as a daily driver. On the other hand, Ferrari, Porsche, and McLaren havedone well to make their range-topping hypercars operate under everyday conditions, and asAutocarreports, none of that will change in the next generation of Prancing Horse hypercar. Ferrari chief technology officer Michael Leiters enlightened the British motoring outlet by speaking a bit about the LaFerrari's replacement and its target benchmarks. His first move was to clear controversy about the engine, claiming that it would not be an F1-derived unit.

"When we define our new roadmap of technology and innovation, we will then consider a replacement for LaFerrari," said Leiters. "We want to do something different. It won't be a road car with a Formula 1 engine because, to be realistic, it would need to idle at 2500-3000rpm and rev to 16,000rpm. The F50 used an F1 engine, but it needed to be changed a lot." The latest generation of hypercars has proved that automakers can build just about anything, hybrids included, into fun world-beating cars. That means that at this point, the art of melding a hypercar becomes more of a balancing act, requiring engineers to work like chefs to determine appropriate amounts of performance, drivability, and comfort to add to each car.