Autocar Has Shelved Its Ferrari 488 Performance Data Because Of An 'Unfair' Tyre Choice

Autocar, the world’s oldest car magazine, has fallen out with Ferrari over what it calls an unfair choice of tyres for a test car.

A 488 GTB that was supplied to Autocar in 2016 for performance benchmarking came direct from the factory fitted with ultra-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres; a track-biased choice the factory won’t actually supply to customers because, we believe, of agreements with Pirelli.

The softer, slicker rubber will have inevitably accelerated most of the 488’s metrics in terms of acceleration and cornering, making them unrepresentative against the car’s rivals, all of which have apparently thus far been tested on their respective factory-standard road tyres. Incidentally, Autocar says the McLaren 720S is faster anyway.

No one picked-up the significance at the time, but Autocar has now published a formal acknowledgement, admitting the data isn’t fully representative and putting it “in the naughty corner.” Michelin Cup-series tyres are normally reserved for the brand’s special high-performance models, like Speciale, Scuderia and Tour de France versions, so the idea that they are faster tyres is really beyond question.

Ferrari’s explanation was that they knew Autocar would be taking the car on track, and so equipped the car accordingly. But with the Michelins not officially recognised as an OE-spec tyre for the car, eyebrows have been raised. Certain British Ferrari dealers will, apparently, swap the regular rubber for Pilot Sport Cup 2s as a ‘special customer request’ before delivery, but, as Autocar says, this is a grey area.

The Cups were homologated as part of the 458 Speciale’s development, and since the platform is essentially the same as the newer 488’s, the homologation still applies. However, the 488 wasn’t developed for or with them, so applying them in order to gain an advantage in tests seems a little dubious. Would it really have been so bad to leave the car on standard road tyres?

What do you think? Is it fair for Ferrari to try to extract every competitive advantage it can in the cars it supplies for road tests, or should it stick to base factory spec?