The perks of being a Formula One->ke190 driver appear to be endless. If being privileged to occupy one of the 20, or so, seats in the grid isn't cool enough, a driver like multiple-time world champion Fernando Alonso certainly has one of the coolest perks of any driver outside of the racetrack.
The lead Ferrari->ke252 driver gets to take tours of the automaker's facilities while also being fawned and fought over wherever he goes. It's a good life, indeed.
But one of the biggest benefits of being a driver on a team like Ferrari is the kind of access you have to some of the company's biggest projects. Recently, the two-time driver's champion paid a visit to the company's facility in Maranello where he met some of Ferrari's best and brightest engineers.
But the real highlight of Alonso's->ke759 visit was the chance to sit behind the wheel of the LaFerrari and take it for a spin around the track. Not a lot of people get to do that and Alonso looks right at home driving that 900-horsepower supercar.
Click past the jump to read more about the Ferrari LaFerrari
Ferrari LaFerrari
The LaFerrari is, without question, Ferrari's resident crown jewel. As the successor to the venerable Enzo, the LaFerrari sits on the throne as the finest piece of automotive engineering and ingenuity the Italian automaker has ever done.
In addition to using F1-inspired aerodynamics to build and develop the design of the LaFerrari, this rollicking beast on wheels is powered by a 6.3-liter V-12 engine with two electric motors — one motor powers the driven wheels and the second drives the ancillaries - producing a scintillating total output of 963 horsepower. That’s good enough to record performance numbers of 0 to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds and a top speed of more than 217 mph.
To put into a perspective just how insanely fast the LaFerrari is, it posted a lap time in Ferrari's Fiorano track of 1:20, five seconds quicker than its predecessor, the Enzo, and three seconds faster than the just-as-new F12berlinetta.
No wonder Fernando Alonso looked like a kid in a candy store behind the wheel of this hypercar.