The other 295 hp – for a total of 1,183 hp, making it the most powerful Ferrari road car of all time – comes from a trio of electric motors developed, designed and built in-house. Two are on the front axle (meaning this is all-wheel drive, whereas the newly minted and even more powerful McLaren W1 is rear-wheel drive), and the third is bolted to the underside of the engine and can produce 70kW or more in regeneration mode 80 HP to the battery deliver the forward momentum. The 800V battery is a 2.3kWh unit hidden behind the seats and features F1 technology for fast charging and discharging – there's no pure electric mode here. As we marveled at the rolling chassis, we actually counted no fewer than 13 electric motors – two more on the 48 VE turbos, one at each corner for the 48 V active suspension and four more 12 V units in the wing, to allow all the buoyancy and tilt.

Photography: Ferrari

Performance is… strong: 0-100km/h in 2.15 seconds, 0-200km/h in 5.75 seconds and a top speed of 217km/h. Faster at both sprints than the RWD McLaren W1 (although the W1 closes the gap by 124 mph) and with an identical top speed. Oh, and a new Fiorano lap record of 1 minute, 15.3 seconds was set – two seconds faster than an SF90 XX Stradale and 4.4 seconds faster than the LaFerrari.

The F80 won't be short of power and clearly has the ability to bring racetracks to its knees, but Ferrari insists it's not just a track toy with number plates. “Our philosophy is that even the most extreme and extraordinary cars must be experienced off the track and not kept in the garage,” explained Enrico Galliera, Ferrari’s chief marketing officer. We are looking forward to an extended F80 road trip.

And what about the sound? Certainly not as operatic as a Nat-Asp V12 engine, but Chief Product Development Officer Gianmaria Fulgenzi assured: “You may doubt me since it is a V6 engine and not a V12 engine , but believe me, the iconic Ferrari soundtrack remains.” He adds: “The e4WD system masters playful sliding at the limit and even encourages it.” We owe this to the latest software SSC 9.0 (Side Slip Control) .

You're probably browsing through the gallery and deciding whether you're a fan of the F80's aerodynamic brutalism, its blacked-out 12Cilindri-style nose and huge active rear wing. It's not necessarily a shape you love at first glance, but it makes more sense the deeper you delve into the engineering underneath… particularly downforce, the new hypercar battlefield that defines and shapes every single F80 surfaces.

The raw numbers are impressive – 1,050kg of downforce at 250km/h – but the fun factor is the way you get there. The underbody is bargeboarded at the front, there's an extendable flap under the front splitter to stall air when needed and reduce drag, and at the rear there's a great diffuser that rises somewhere in the middle of the car. Up top, the familiar S-duct draws air up and over from the underside of the car, while the rear wing can be raised 200mm and tilted dramatically to act as an air brake, or fold down for reduced drag. The result is a true ground effect car with 460 kg of downforce at the front and 590 kg at the rear.

This is all made possible by an active suspension system that not only mitigates compression, dive and roll, but also maintains a constant ride height so that the underbody can do its job. It's also a thing of beauty with the built-in springs, dampers, motors and actuators for the Multimatic setup, all housed close behind the stunning in-house 3D printed control arms. The transmission is an eight-speed DCT, the wheels are the first five-spoke carbon rims Ferrari has made, and the tires are Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 or Pilot Sport Cup2Rs.

The carbon tub itself is asymmetrical so that the passenger seat can be placed a little further back. This is a requirement to keep it narrow and with the feet raised to allow the aero underneath to take effect – the result is a tub that is five percent lighter than the LaFerrari's, with 50 percent more torsional rigidity. Overall, the 4WD F80 weighs 1,525kg dry, 125kg more than the RWD McLaren W1.

Then there's the “Impluvium” – a name for the channel-shaped Naca intakes on the shoulders of the car, which look like the body is being pulled away from the tub to feed the engine intake and intercoolers. They are possible because the cockpit is so narrow that this square, flat shoulder surface extends the entire length of the vehicle. The most striking viewing angle of the F80 is definitely the front end. From there, you'll also notice the vehicle's “nostrils,” two intake ports that direct air through the front subframe profiles to cool the Brembo CCM-R Plus brakes.

You might even catch a glimpse of the solid engine cover, which has six slats, one for each cylinder underneath. That nose visor? “I didn't want to have that typical two-eyes-one-mouth layout, which makes it clearer and a little more mysterious. “The visor immediately transports you to the world of science fiction,” chief designer Flavio Manzoni told us.

When you pull a physical handle located at the bottom, the butterfly door rises, taking the window sill with it. A perfect opportunity to admire the narrowness of the tub, the way it dramatically tapers between the front wheels and how high the driver's feet are to make room for the aero gadgets underneath. When Charles Leclerc drove it through Fiorano for the first time, he apparently jumped out and shouted: “You've finally built a car with the right driving position.”

Inside, Ferrari claims a 1+1 seating arrangement, which is a bit of a stretch. The passenger is set slightly further back than the driver, which can reduce the cockpit width by 50mm, but there is plenty of room for two adults. However, the passenger seat is attached to the tub and is finished in black, while the driver gets full control of the tilt, seat adjustment fore and aft and Rosso Alcantara. The boss is at the wheel.

This wheel is a squeal, with physical buttons making a welcome return and all your usual drive mode controls – Mannetino on the right for Wet Sport Race CT Off ESC Off and three modes for the powertrain on the left Side – Hybrid (maximum efficiency for general on-road driving), Performance (faster on-road and track driving, battery level above 70 percent) and Qualifying (to hell with it, use up every last ounce of e-juice for maximum speed) . Plus another party trick – a boost optimization mode. Drive around a track to show the computers where the curves and straights are. This information is stored and automatically provides an additional performance boost in the sections of the racetrack where it is needed most. Clean. There's a floating center console with exposed screw heads, a camera as a rearview mirror, and no room for your stuff.

If you're reading this and are on the verge of tears because you dutifully bought a pair of Romas, Purosangues and every other “normal” Ferrari in the hope of getting an F80 allocation but didn't get one, we sympathize. Ferrari said the process is less shady than it used to be and the cars go to customers who buy everything but also race them, attend events and generally rave about the brand. Good luck in ten years or take solace in the millions you've saved. Better yet, hold off, wait for our verdicts to come in, and let it be “used,” because there's a hell of a head-to-head race brewing with the McLaren W1.

Who knows, if Porsche finds a way to integrate an engine into its Mission X concept, we might even have a Holy Trinity Part II hypercar.