Official Ferrari F12 Berlinetta Picture Thread

Thank you Marcel. I should have also noted one of the giveaways that a car is a full scale mock up is they show no interior- because its not there!

 

You are a good observer and you didn’t miss the fact that the F12 in the last picture hasn’t the Pininfarina badge and also there isn't anyone from the company in that picture. We can only speculate if that was done on purpose or not but IMO Ferrari has always tried to get all the credits for the design of the F12 Berlinetta and Flavio Manzoni trajectory may be explains that. According to the October 2012 issue of the reputed French magazine AUTOMOBILES Classiques, where there is a ten pages article about the F12 Berlinetta and it’s design process and another six pages about Pininfarina house, the story is like this:

Pininfarina house exclusivity as Ferrari’s designer ended when the latter together with Maserati created their own department of “concept, design & development”. That happened in July 2002 and the new department studio was located at Maranello and directed by Frank Stephenson. In November 2005 Frank Stephenson was moved to FIAT before departing to the UK to direct MacLaren design office. He was replaced at Maranello new department by Donato Coco who stayed only four years and moved afterwards to Lotus. Coco’s place was taken by Flavio Manzoni on the 1st January 2010.

The study of the F12 Berlinetta started during Donato Coco management but was is successor the one who directed the biggest part of it. The first sketches where made at Pininfarina house during the last weeks of 2009 but very soon after his arrival Flavio Manzoni tried to impose his own stylistic proposals. Andrea Militello and his team, where it was Werner Gruber and Alberto Agnari, came up with the theme shown on the first sketch on the previous post 5669, giving the general orientation for the study. At Ferrari and also at Pininfarina the common denominator was to achieve optimal aerodynamics fully integrated avoiding ailerons and appendices that could be associated with tuning. That’s when Franco Cimatti (see picture below), responsible for Pininfarina studies and concepts, introduced the Aero Bridges system but on the various interviews about the F12 development Manzoni never mentioned that and always left all the credits to himself and his Ferrari team.

The result of Ferrari and Pininfarina cooperation on the F12 Berlinetta resulted in a coherent and harmonious product that made many forget de accumulated imperfections of the 599 GTB Fiorano.




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Thank you Mario. Great information.

 

Some additional interesting curiosities about the development stages of the F12 Berlinetta. The first two sketches below are from Pininfarina early proposals presumably from December 2009 and they weren't approved by Ferrari. The third picture with the meeting table was taken during the last stages of the F12 development and we can see Flavio Manzoni. The person at his right appears to be the ingegnere Franco Cimatti but I can't confirm. The F12's on the background of this picture are all models used for development and the French Ferrarista who published the picture pointed out that the two red ones appear to have slightly different rears.


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Very interesting to catch some bits of the design process, thanks Mario

 

Thank you Mario!

I wish someone would write a book about the development of the F12, one of my favorite Ferrari’s of all time.

 

After reading that post, I find awesome you finally did it !

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/146414497/

 

The current PF website states "penned by Pininfarina in cooperation with the Maranello Style Centre".

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I think the Ferrari site says the same thing but switches places. At the time PF had the extensive experience and a large amount of experienced designers while Maranello was just starting out with a few. After the F12, Maranello just seemed to take the existing PF designs and make minor and objectively less pleasant tweaks. My believe is that of the collaboration PF did 'most' of the design earning that name plaque on the front fenders. Something no other Ferrari since can display.

 

I'm not so sure that's really true but I think we will never know the whole story.

I do remember when Ferrari said they were breaking with PF that there were several quotes stating FDC designed most of the car and PF did the rear- the part that seemed so controversial at the time.

My opinion is FDC has done a good job on recent models.

 

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Photo by: Future Photography

 

The F12 Berlinetta was revealed at Geneva in March 2012 and soon afterwards the first cars started being spotted in Italy. Below are the pictures of the first spot made at AutoGespot in countries representing different parts of the world.



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Gorgeous, thanks Mario!

 

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Photos by: Ferrari of Seattle

 

I never will forget the video from autogespot - seeing the car presented this way, and really the very well done production of the video was incredible.

https://www.autogespot.com/driven:-ferrari-f12berlinetta

Video:


I think I just liked how the music timed in so well when you see the car emerge behind the wall.

 

Mario,

I want to say that its always a pleasure to read your posts, see the passion you have for Ferrari and understand the research you take into your hands before sharing the knowledge with us.

It is undeniable that Pininfarina designs helped making Ferrari what it is today. Ferraris from the Pininfarina era are some of the most iconic and beautiful cars (or art on wheels as some of us say) ever created. The F12 is no exception - and in my opinion, one of the best.

This however shouldn't divert us from understanding why Ferrari created its own design centre.

In a time when cars look more and more the same, partnering/subcontracting the design to an external company who doesn't work in exclusivity with the brand and more importantly, who possibly can't ensure the secrecy of the design language and details, probably isn't the right way.

It is important to notice that Pininfarina has struggled financially through the 2000s, was funded by several investors foreign investors - some linked to HUGE mainstream car manufacturers, and was acquired by Mahindra group in 2015.

I believe Ferrari's in-house design centre is essential for the survival of the brand. And looking at the cars they managed to develop until now - 488, 812, Monza, they appear to be doing fine. And certainly this approach will allow better exclusivity and I&D secrecy.

From my understand,ing Ferrari's identity is basically its engines (produced in-house) and design language (produced in-house). With the electric era, the ICE is loosing its place, so part of Ferrari's essence might be lost. Hence, probably the exterior and interior design will be more and more important to continue to differentiate the brand,

For some of us nostalgists, the Pininfarina badge is missing on the newer cars. However, I think it might be for a good cause - survival of the brand.

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Thank you Jerry that's a great video find completely new to me. That's a very original and rather simple way of presenting the F12 with a final result that is exceptional. That's not inferior in terms of aesthetics and message to what we see on the brands new cars super production adverts.

 

Extremely well said, thank you for the thoughtful post.

 

Thanks Mario. I love many different music styles and this is one I enjoy but not super knowledgable. I love Ferrari though and through this passion I have been exposed to many different things, including this song. It was the first time I heard it and to this day it has remained a big favorite- I love the music. The song is "Swimming Pools" by Kendrick Lamar. His lyrics are excellent, but in this case I like the music even better!

 

One of my son’s favorites, Jerry. He played it for me last weekend up in NYC, along with Anderson .Paak who recently performed on SNL where Josh interns.


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Thank you Ricardo I've always had an interest in Ferrari history and on the progress of the brand. It's an incredible heritage, decade after decade, model after model, always defining what's the state-of-the art in terms of road sports cars design, performance and sonority.
Ferrari's road car models long success can't be disassociated from Pininfarina's contribution in terms of design. Pininfarina created what's Ferrari styling ADN and therefore any new design to be recognized visually as being a Ferrari, can't avoid taking that ADN into consideration. Despite the invaluable contribution of Pininfarina to what Ferrari is today I completely agree with you about the importance and the need for the brand to have its own in-house design. Despite of that, Flavio Manzoni who has had the chief designer job only since 2010 and is a novice, should always keep in mind that Pininfarina's heritage is a design treasury that started with a first 1951 model and only ended with the F12 Berlinetta in 2012, more than 60 years later.

PS- I love the drawing of the F12 Berlinetta you posted and I have a large lithography of it hanging on my home office wall.

 

Posted this a couple of weeks ago...

Was the 812 designed by the F12 team ?
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/index.php?threads/Was-the-812-designed-by-the-F12-team-%3F.590645/


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In 2011 there was an enormous expectancy about the new car and many reports called it the 620 GT but it ended-up being the F12 Berlinetta. The first test mule was seen in August 2011 and was a kind of chopped 599 GTO with the F12 new chassis and powertrain. In November of 2011 another fully dressed test mule was seen driving around Maranello.

On December 13 2011 a new thread named “599 Successor” was started in FerrariChat and all the veteran members around certainly still remember very well. At the time I wasn’t a member of FerrariChat and everything I knew about the future car was from other sources therefore to the benefit of the more recent members like me, below I post some pictures published on that thread that are part of the F12 history. Like on previous models previews, one of the central personalities on that thread discussions was fellow member Ingegnere that released a first sketch of the F12 followed by others that were published afterwards in motorcar magazines and websites around the world.

It’s interesting to refer that when the first picture of the F12 dated 24th February 2012 was posted, the reaction of many FerrariChat purists wasn’t very positive. However that sentiment very soon faded away when the official pictures of the car were published in the 29thFebruary 2012 and a large majority liked it.





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