Jony Ive’s take on a Ferrari cockpit melted the internet, but all the hot takes are about something else entirely
So many hot takes. I suppose in a way we should be grateful that the humble motor car is still capable of capturing the imagination of the wider public. But still. So many.
I’m referring, of course, to the reaction to a demonstration of the upcoming Ferrari Luce’s interior, as designed by LoveFrom founder Jony Ive, formerly a noted Apple designer. We’ve only seen a few parts of this interior, and not yet in situ either.
We won’t see the outside of the car until May. But it has been reported just about everywhere, becoming the biggest mainstream new car news story since Jaguar’s unveiling of the Type 00 concept.
And, as there, reaction to it has been polarised, with lots of hates (more than loves, I think) among the takes people have had.
Partly both manufacturers courted the attention, of course. Jaguar invited controversy (although received more than it expected) with its new branding, messaging and design.
Ferrari outsourced both the interior and exterior design of its next car to an agency fronted by a huge design name, which was bound to cause a stir and has resulted in big changes.
What’s also significant is that both of these new models are electric – a departure from the exciting combustion norm of both companies (accepting that Jaguar has had an EV before).
And I wonder if, in both cases, some of the loudest critical voices (I don’t in any way mean all, or even a majority) would have felt differently if these new designs or new branding still came accompanied by V8 or V12 engines.
What if these new elements had first appeared in, say, the 12Cilindri? A thinner, less cluttered, more classic, rounder, three-spoke steering wheel; a cleaner touchscreen; multi-layered instruments and a return to more real buttons: haven’t we wanted those for ages? I think there would have been fewer of the hottest of takes and more of them would have been positive.
And don’t Ferrari interiors need a makeover? I’m less down on them than I think some owners are. There are ergonomic foibles, granted, but Ferrari does some elements just so incredibly well (industry-best gearshift paddles and the manettino drive mode/damper firmness selector) that I can overlook suboptimal indicator switch placement and so on. These aren’t daily family cars, after all.
I don’t think Ferrari helped itself with the pictures it released of this new set-up either. We haven’t seen the full cabin environment in which these new elements will sit and some of the renderings, with an upright placement of the instruments and screen, do come across a bit, dare I say, maintenance truck.
Things seem much better in the video made by our news editor Will Rimell, in which he got up close with the individual components. The high perceived material quality was much clearer and the depth of the multi-layered instrument panel glass over a real needle and both over a display buried behind, with real tactile quality to it all more evident.
I still wonder whether it was shrewd or not for Ferrari to get an outsider’s take on how its car should look and feel. One senior insider described it as “a Jony Ive car” when I asked them about it.
The Luce is such a departure for Ferrari the car company known primarily for its engines is making a car without one that its core models might feel separated from it. So on the one hand, if you don’t like the car, ‘well, look, we didn’t exactly do it’. But on the other, do they really believe it belongs in the range?
I suppose we’ll see. But I do believe some people would have fallen for this interior more if it had arrived attached to a conventional Ferrari. That’s the only take I have for now, hot or otherwise.
On the rest I’ll wait until I’ve seen it and felt it when it arrives in a finished car. Which isn’t necessarily a fabulous position for an opinion columnist to adopt, I’ll grant you, but it’s the one I’m going with for now. It might not be a terrible idea for more people to do the same.
