Sailing

Ferrari presents Hypersail, hi-tech boat (almost) ready for launching

A 30-metre boat integrating cutting-edge technology, aerodynamic design and energy sustainability, designed by Ferrari Design Studio and inspired by the brand's automotive icons

by Antonio Vettese

21 April 2026

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

It will not be red. It will be a Ferrari with lots of dark grey and Giallo Fly. A betrayal? Perhaps not, just an attempt to break out of a colour that has become a logo and that the public expects in a precise shade according to an ancient ritual.

The new livery seems to have been specially designed so that the logo can be read from afar. Few combinations in fact are more visible than the yellow text on a black or almost black background: a combination that is practically necessary because of the huge solar panels on the hull and the typical carbon colour.

Those who can lurk in the ocean during one of her record attempts will see her barreling along at 50 knots. But he won't be able to greet anyone because the crew will all be inside the boat, protected. So the Ferrari Hypersail project, after many months of waiting, is unveiled showing more than a few renderings. During the week in which Milan is invaded by design and mobile the team presented the new livery, while the boat is almost ready for the launch, scheduled after the summer at a location and date still secret. Those present: John Elkan, Enrico Voltolini the new team leader, Matteo Lanzavecchia and Marco Guglielmo Ribigini leading technical development, naval designer Guillaume Verdier and Ferrari Design Studio chief Flavio Manzoni. The big absentee? It has to be remembered, it will be Giovanni Soldini who separated from the team a few weeks ago.

The boat, a thirty-metre monohull, is literally 'scary': beyond all the fine phrases about contamination and technological transfer, it will be the sum of all contemporary experiences related to super-fast sailing, starting with foiling, passing through on-board energy production (and energy is needed) and ending with sophisticated control and simulation systems that are used for driving. There is a 'literature' built up both in the sailing world, especially America's Cup, which uses similar monohulls, and in cars and F1 where simulations and software are of great importance. The bet is to evolve the systems and create dedicated and proprietary ones. It is a very experimental phase, where every day something changes. After an America's Cup race, the teams always update the software to adapt it to the day's experience, they change sail settings, foil trim. Now, a Cup race lasts about 25 minutes. Imagine an ocean crossing, which will be the ambition of this boat, non-stop for four days, or a round-the-world race in 40 days. It's all different..

In Hypersail, design is performance-oriented and is never just an aesthetic aspect, but a direct consequence of function: every volume is born from the interaction between wind, water and speed. Being an off-shore ocean-going boat, the aesthetic choices, from day one, were developed within narrow perimeters defined by aerodynamics and engineering.

Ferrari Design Studio, headed by Flavio Manzoni, worked in symbiosis with designer Verdier and the team of Ferrari engineers to translate aerodynamic, hydrodynamic and structural constraints into aesthetic opportunities: thus the tapered silhouette recalls the lines of the Ferrari Monza SP1/SP2, while the coachroof on the deck recalls the architecture of the Le Mans-winning Hypercar 499P.

Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari's Chief Design Officer, tells us: "Hypersail represented an unexpected opportunity for the Ferrari Design Studio; a challenging objective, due to its complexity, which allowed us to extend our creative research to a different context from the usual one. The case of the solar panels, integrated into the deck and the bulwarks, is emblematic. Their position was determined by a study of the sun exposure that Hypersail will have during its navigation. The solar panels are walkable and have a specific grip.

"Hypersail is a unique boat in terms of size and technology, developed to guarantee maximum performance in a unique and unpredictable environment such as the ocean. This is thanks to its basic concept: flight, made possible through a sophisticated control system, the result of know-how matured on our cars, powered by energy recovered from renewable sources such as wind, sun and motion,' explains Matteo Lanzavecchia, Ferrari's Head of Vehicle Engineering and Chief Technology Officer Hypersail. 'The design choice of a monohull derives from the combination of maximum hydrodynamic and aerodynamic efficiency.

Yellow is also a second soul of Ferraris. Born from an intuition of Fiamma Breschi, widow of driver Luigi Musso - famous for his distinctive yellow helmet - and friend of Enzo Ferrari, Giallo Fly was first adopted on a 275 GTB, the first yellow Ferrari in history, giving birth to a shade destined to become legend. Fly because it flies, but it should be remembered that yellow has also often been used in aviation: images of Spitfires and Messerschmitts or Focke Wulfs with large yellow areas are not rare.

The main material in Hypersail is carbon: the shade of grey, in a new variant renamed Hypersail Grey, dominates the livery. The contrast between this grey and the iconic Giallo Fly generates an aesthetic reminiscent of the 512 BB, the first example of an 'integrated' livery. From the hull we move on to the Ferrari logo on the wing, inserted to give continuity to an unprecedented visual presence of the F lunga that began in recent years (the wing of the F1 2023/2024 single-seater, the Lifestyle, the Daytona SP3 donated at auction at Pebble Beach), through to the details inspired by La Ferrari and the lines of the F80.

In Milan, at the Ferrari Flagship Store with the Hypersail lighthouse-installation During Design Week, from 22 to 26 April, the Hypersail project is narrated in an exhibition itinerary.

In addition, an opportunity for the public with technical curiosity to get in touch with the project and its protagonists will be on Friday 24 at 11 a.m. in the De Carli lecture hall of the Politecnico di Milano Campus Bovisa, an initiative that originated in the context of YachtCity.