After its inaugural edition at Ferrari’s home town of Maranello, Italy, and subsequently in Australia and South Korea, Universo Ferrari has come a little closer to home with its first-ever Southeast Asian stop. Taking place over five days at the EmSphere shopping mall in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand, Universo Ferrari was an exhibition that showcased the beloved automotive marque’s past, present and even glimpses of its future—in other words, as ever, an absolute delight for the Ferraristi. The final three days of the exhibition were open to the public.
View more photos from the exhibition
Francesco Bianchi, president of Ferrari APAC and Middle East, explains that Universo Ferrari debuted in 2019 to communicate the different aspects of Ferrari to those that may not be fully aware of the breadth of the storied brand. “We thought that bringing Maranello to a different geographic area was a very nice idea—in order to share the passion, legacy and values of this brand all across the globe,” he said.
View more of the various exhibits
Enrico Galleria, Ferrari’s chief marketing and commercial officer (pictured below), notes that, broadly speaking, there are three aspects to the brand: the racing division, most famous for Formula 1; the sports car division, which are the Ferraris one finds on the road; and, more amorphously, the brand’s lifestyle appeal, which goes beyond motoring. “We strongly believe that if you want to play in the luxury environment, you need to offer not only an outstanding product, but an outstanding experience,” Galleria said. For clients, this includes organised drives and meet-ups for them to share their experiences, but Universo Ferrari is an extension of this philosophy that has a much broader reach—tapping not just into the community of Ferrari owners but also into the much larger group of Ferrari enthusiasts.
In the spirit of bringing Maranello to the world, Galleria also adds that the venue choices being quite far from Italy have been deliberate ones. “For Asian clients [and fans], it’s not so simple to take a flight and come to Maranello,” he says. “[But in this region] despite being far away, there are a huge number of fans and collectors.”
View a bit of the past, present and future
The highlight of the Bangkok edition of Universo Ferrari was the presentation of the F80, which had only been announced the month prior. An extreme performance, cutting-edge supercar in the vein of the LaFerrari or the Enzo, the F80 has a V6 hybrid powertrain and is capable of a whopping 1,200bhp—making it the most powerful road car to ever come from Ferrari when it does launch, which will likely be in late 2025.
The rest of the exhibition was an encapsulation of the allure of Ferrari. The current collection was on parade, from the thoroughbred SF90 XX Stradale to the four-door Purosangue, as well as the new 12Cilindri and its celebration of the V12 grand tourer spirit. The classics were represented by the likes of the 308 GTB and the F50. A racing section documented some of the marque’s many sporting highlights, including an example of the F1 car that Michael Schumacher drove during the memorable 2000 F1 season—winning both constructor’s and driver’s championships for Ferrari, the latter their first in more than two decades.
