Ferrari has been awarded the highest design recognition from the German Red Dot Award association, with the Ferrari SC40 receiving the Red Dot: Best of the Best accolade in the Product Design category. Ferrari’s design excellence was further confirmed by additional recognition across the range: the Ferrari Amalfi, 849 Testarossa, 849 Testarossa Spider, 296 Speciale, and 296 Speciale A were all awarded a Red Dot award.
Highlights
- Ferrari takes the top prize in the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026 with its latest One-Off
- The Ferrari SC40, new One-Off based on the 296 GTB which pairs uncompromising Berlinetta character with an original design inspired by the F40, won the Red Dot: Best of the Best in the Product Design category
- The Ferrari SC40 is the first One-Off Ferrari car to ever win a Red Dot: Best of the Best award
- The styling buck of the car is currently exhibited at the Museo Ferrari in Maranello
- The Ferrari Amalfi, 849 Testarossa, 849 Testarossa Spider, 296 Speciale and 296 Speciale A were all awarded the Red Dot award
The Red Dot Award, a leading industrial design award, honors innovation and excellence in the industry. Celebrating its 72nd year, the awards ceremony will be held on 07 July 2026 in Essen, Germany. Over the past 12 years Ferrari has won 35 Red Dot Awards: no other car manufacturer has achieved comparable results since the award was inaugurated in 1955. Since 2015, the jury has awarded Ferrari no fewer than 13 Red Dot: Best of the Best prizes for the following cars: FXX-K, 488 GTB, Ferrari J50, Ferrari Portofino, Ferrari Monza SP1, SF90 Stradale, Ferrari Daytona SP3, Ferrari Purosangue, Vision GT, Ferrari Roma Spider, Ferrari 12Cilindri & 12Cilindri Spider, F80, Ferrari SC40.
This breadth of recognition underscores the consistency of Ferrari’s design language and the strength of the work carried out by the Ferrari Design Studio in balancing innovation, heritage and functional clarity across markedly different product expressions. This year’s Best of the Best award also highlights the exclusivity and extraordinary value of the Special Projects program, which enables a select group of clients to create the One-Off Ferrari of their dreams through an ongoing dialogue with Maranello’s designers and aerodynamicists.
The styling buck of the car is currently on display at the Museo Ferrari in Maranello, offering visitors a direct view of the project at full scale and insight into how the car’s proportions and surfaces were developed before production. Displayed as a key milestone in the design process, the buck highlights the defining volumes and graphic elements that shape the model’s identity and provides a tangible link between the initial design phase and the finished One-Off.
FERRARI SC40
The Ferrari SC40 is a new One-Off from Ferrari’s Special Projects program, created as a unique, tailor-made car for a single client and developed by the Ferrari Design Studio under the direction of Flavio Manzoni. Conceived as a pure, uncompromising berlinetta, it is a mid-rear-engined V6 that derives its architecture, chassis, and powertrain from the 296 GTB, while adopting an entirely new design that pays tribute to the legendary F40 without being its literal reinterpretation. Its theme draws inspiration from industrial design, combining precise geometries with muscular, squared volumes, and is defined by proportions such as a long, low nose, a short rear overhang, and a high fixed rear wing finished in the bespoke Bianco SC40. Inside, the extensive use of reinterpreted carbon-Kevlar material, alongside technical fabrics and Alcantara®, reinforces the link to the F40 ethos, while the hybrid powertrain delivers a combined 830 cv, enabling 0–100 km/h in 2.9 s and a top speed of over 330 km/h.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
The Special Projects program is aimed at creating unique Ferraris (so-called “One-Offs”), characterized by an exclusive design crafted to the client’s requirements, who thus becomes the owner of a one-of-a-kind model. Each project originates from an idea put forward by the client and is developed hand-in-glove with a team of designers from Ferrari’s Styling Center. Once the car’s proportions and forms have been defined, detailed design blueprints and a styling buck are produced before the manufacturing process for the new One-Off begins. The entire process takes about 2 years on average, during which the client is closely involved in the design and verification phases. The result? A unique Ferrari sporting the Prancing Horse logo and engineered to the same standards of excellence that characterize all of Maranello’s cars.
Above contents © 2026 Ferrari SpA, reviewed and edited by Rex McAfee , @rexmcafee
