Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider review

We’ll focus here on how well the 12Cilindri’s cabin works in a Spider. Because there are one or two problems here.

Ferrari knows that its haptic touch-sensitive steering wheel concept is flawed. Why else would it have set the ‘buttons’ up to default to being ‘off’ after ten seconds, requiring the driver to wake them up with a press of the centre of the trackpad? It’s not a major inconvenience and does stop accidental swiping of the controls, but it’s still fiddlier than it ought to be.

The issue in the Spider is that when the sun is bright and behind you, shining directly into the cabin, it’s tricky to even see if the buttons are illuminated or not, and what exactly you’re pressing. And this issue repeats itself throughout the glossy, screen-dependent cabin. It can be tough to see what’s on the busy instrument screen. Accurately hitting the nose-lift tile or working the climate control in the low-set central display is a pain. And the passenger’s screen, showing revs, speed or basic entertainment functions, is pretty much rendered obsolete.

Convertibles and ordeal-by-touchscreen is by no means an issue unique to Ferrari: see the current Mercedes-AMG SL’s tiltable display or the hopelessly reflective old Lamborghini Huracan Spyder’s centre console screen for details. Not a sunny day, mind you.

Hopefully this is the nadir of Ferrari’s button-free interior concept and the next generation of Prancing Horses will enjoy a bit more common sense over style.

Otherwise, we’ve not many complaints here. Material quality is extremely high (don’t feel you have to lather everything in carbon – the metal finishes are beautifully tactile). Fit and finish is notably improved on the F12’s from a decade ago. If you find the standard seats a little flat in the base and want something more supportive, as we did, there are £8k ‘racing’ carbon buckets waiting in Ferrari’s tailor-made programme.

There’s plenty of adjustment in the driving position and once you get to grips with the button placement, you’ll see the genius in Ferrari’s steering wheel lower half – having the main beam and wipers at your fingertips rather than stalks arguing with the paddleshifters works superbly.

In the boot there’s 200 litres of storage – enough for a suitcase or a couple of overnight bags but perhaps not the proper grand-tourer luggage swallower you might hope. Suppose that’s the Purosangue’s job now. Even with a hybrid battery eating up space, a Conti GT musters another 60 litres of stowage. How much luggage you can squeeze behind the seats will depend largely on how tall you are, and where you position the seat.