7 minutes around the Nürburgring onboard a Ferrari 488 Pista
The Ferrari F8, replacing the mid-engine 488 is now available both as the Tributo coupé and the F8 Spider, but if you’re still lusting after a 488 Pista instead, we don’t blame you. Despite having the same power output, it’s just a faster car.
That’s where Germany’s sport auto comes in. The magazine just loves to push track-oriented supercars to their absolute limit around the Nordschleife, in order to make sure they don’t need to rely on official record runs (which may or may not take place using cars that may or may not be completely stock). For science!
Using the tire Michelin specifically designed for the 488 Pista, the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R K1, sport auto’s seasoned test driver and Nürburgring local Christian Gebhardt laid down a 7.00:03 minute lap. That makes the Pista around four seconds quicker than a Mercedes-AMG GT-R Pro, and around 20 seconds slower than the Porsche GT2 RS MR Manthey-Racing built specially for the ‘Ring recond. The stock GT2 RS’ time stands at 6 minutes, 47.3 seconds.
Given that even if you have a 488 Pista, it’s highly unlikely that you could keep up with Christian Gebhardt, here’s how a 7-minute lap looks in Ferrari’s so-far finest:
