The first image of the new Ferrari 458 Italia’s interior has been released, revealing a minimal, avant-garde style coupled with F1-derived driver information systems.
The new car, which will replace the 430 when it goes on sale next year, does away with indicator and wiper stalks, replacing them with buttons mounted on the steering wheel.
Ferrari 458 Italia picture gallery - now including interior pictures
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The indicators switches are on either side of the boss, while the wiper controls sit above the five-position manettino switch. The lights are still operated by a rotary control to the left of the wheel, but the high/dip beam switch is on the wheel, below the left indicator switch.
The wheel also contains the engine start button and the button for the suspension damper settings, which will operate in a similar way to the current 430 Scuderia. The manettino - the red switch on the right of the wheel - is also from the Scuderia, with that car’s five options
The 458 Italia is capable of telling the driver when the brakes, tyres and engine are at the optimum operating temperature. Called virtual race engineer, a display in the dash to the left of the rev counter shows a schematic of the car, and components change colour according to temperature. Yellow means the temperatures aren’t high enough, green is the perfect temperature and red means the car is too hot.
This system is from the 599XX, the experimental car unveiled at this year’s Geneva show, and works when the car is in Race mode.
Dan Stevens
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