There is a moment, just before a race car breaches the apex, when form and function achieve perfect symbiosis; Ferrari has now sought that same breathless instant upon the open sea. During the Milan Design Week, the House of the Prancing Horse has unveiled the livery of Ferrari Hypersail, a 100-foot oceanic flying monohull that redefines the very grammar of offshore navigation through a rare fusion of innovation, aerodynamics, and design research. Born from a creative process where the aesthetic language of Maranello encounters the most advanced technology in the world of offshore sailing, Hypersail underscores an ever-deepening bond between design, innovation, and performance. Conceived as an open innovation platform, Hypersail brings together diverse expertise in a choral process to redefine the boundaries of the possible and achieve a synthesis of engineering and style: the Ferrari Tech Team under Matteo Lanzavecchia and Marco Guglielmo Ribigini, the Ferrari Design Studio led by Flavio Manzoni, and naval architect Guillaume Verdier.
The objective is nothing less than to transfer into the nautical world the same design and aesthetic spirit that makes Ferrari’s cars unique: a relentless tension towards innovation, without ever losing the essence of form. In Hypersail, design is never merely an aesthetic concern but a direct consequence of function: every volume arises from the interaction between wind, water, and speed. As an offshore ocean boat, aesthetic choices have from day one developed within tight perimeters defined by precise aerodynamic and engineering constraints – performance dictates the rules, and design transforms them into beauty. The Ferrari Design Studio, guided by Flavio Manzoni, has worked in symbiosis with Verdier and the Ferrari engineering team to translate aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, and structural constraints into aesthetic opportunities. The sleek, tapered silhouette evokes the pure proportions of the Ferrari Monza SP1/SP2, while the exterior of the coachroof on deck recalls the architecture of the Le Mans-winning Hypercar 499P. The surfaces of the deck and the coachroof themselves, curated directly by the Ferrari Design Studio, have been engineered to guarantee maximum technical efficiency, just as in the development of every car designed by the Prancing Horse.
“Hypersail represented for the Ferrari Design Studio an unexpected opportunity,” says Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari’s Chief Design Officer. “A challenging objective, due to its complexity, which allowed us to extend our creative research to a context different from the usual one. In reality, the Design Studio is no stranger to operations of this kind. In the past, experience gained in competition car projects – to cite a sector with very high technological content – has favoured the exploration of a more complex field in which to measure ourselves and expand our competencies.” Emblematic is the case of the solar panels integrated into the deck and sidewalls: their position was determined by an advanced study of the solar exposure Hypersail will experience during its navigation.
The panels are walkable and feature a specific grip; they have been integrated with technical fastening systems, clips, and dedicated treatments, guaranteeing the crew maximum freedom of movement. “Hypersail is a unique boat in terms of size and technology, developed to guarantee maximum performance in a unique and unpredictable environment like the ocean,” explains Matteo Lanzavecchia, Head of Vehicle Engineering at Ferrari and Chief Technology Officer of Hypersail. “This is thanks to the base concept: flight, made possible through a sophisticated control system, the fruit of know-how matured on our cars, powered by energy recovered from renewable sources such as wind, sun, and movement.
The design choice of a monohull derives from the union between maximum hydrodynamic and aerodynamic efficiency. In all phases of design, collaboration with the Design Studio allowed us to enhance and valorise the forms and characteristics of Hypersail, making it an example of design and innovation.” In developing the boat’s livery, the Ferrari Design Studio sought to create a connection between Hypersail’s future-oriented design and the history of the brand’s aesthetic. The chromatic answer was a light hue: Giallo Fly, a colour that carries with it a precious narrative heritage and, being yellow, historically the second soul of Ferrari. Born from an intuition of Fiamma Breschi, widow of driver Luigi Musso – famous for his distinctive yellow helmet – and a friend of Enzo Ferrari, Giallo Fly was first adopted on a 275 GTB, the first yellow Ferrari in history, giving life to a shade destined to become legend. In Hypersail’s case, Giallo Fly also finds a natural connection in the word ‘fly’ with this vessel’s specific nature.
The primary material in Hypersail is carbon fibre: the shade of grey, in a new variant renamed Grigio Hypersail, characterises the livery, revealing itself not merely as an aesthetic choice but as the direct expression of the physical properties of lightness and performance that derive from this material. On this innovative project, the contrast between Grigio Hypersail and iconic Giallo Fly generates an aesthetic at once uniform and functional: applied to the cabin, the foils, and the side lines, yellow recalls the stylistic signatures of Ferrari’s most celebrated cars, forcefully bringing out the brand’s DNA and evoking, in the sharp colour distinction, the 512 BB – the first example of an ‘integrated’ livery. From the hull to the Ferrari logo on the sail, inserted to provide continuity to an unprecedented visual presence of the long F that began in recent years (the wing of the 2023/2024 F1 single-seater, Lifestyle, the Daytona SP3 donated at auction at Pebble Beach), to details inspired by La Ferrari and the lines of the F80, Hypersail defines a new paradigm between design and function in offshore yachting. During Design Week, from 22 to 26 April, the Hypersail project is told – across design, innovation, and performance – within an exhibition path at the Ferrari Flagship Store in Milan and through the flagship installation ‘Hypersail’, an exclusive sculptural installation by the Ferrari Design Studio on the main terrace of HIGHLINE Milan, with a view of Piazza del Duomo – an iconic symbol to identify Hypersail as a new point of reference and inspiration for the future of technology and performance in ocean navigation.
