Gallery: the best photos from the Ferrari World Finals

As the Formula One season prepares to wrap up this weekend at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi, at least we can look forward to Ferrari properly taking the fight to Mercedes in 2016.

That was certainly the feeling we got during the Mondiali Finali, Ferrari’s traditional end-of-year knees-up, which returned this year to Mugello in Tuscany and proved once again that no-one else has the reach, or packs the emotional wallop, of the Prancing Horse.

Photos: Joe Windsor-Williams

Not that this lot take anything for granted. Various grandees, including both current Scuderia drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene, WEC and GT drivers Giancarlo Fisichella, Andrea Bertolini and Gianmaria Bruni, turned up to bask in glorious sunshine and the even more glorious adulation of 40,000 tifosi.

But the presence of Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne, a few weeks after presiding over the company’s IPO in New York, and in and out of Mugello several times over four days in his helicopter, ensures that there is a laser-guided focus at all times. This is one dude nobody messes with.

Consequently, this was no ordinary party. Ten years ago, topgear.com was here when the wraps came off the FXX project for the first time. We lapped Mugello with test driver Luca Badoer in one, right behind Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in their F2005s.

In the decade that has elapsed, Ferrari’s Corse Clienti programme has blossomed into an enormous global money-spinner, the fate of F1’s greatest-ever driver is tragically still hanging in the balance, and Ferrari powers on into a new, uncharted territory.

Click through for some of the highlights.

The FIA officially frowns upon donuts, the party poopers, but in the comfort of its own circuit Ferrari can do what it likes. This is Sebastian Vettel adopting an unusual approach to the controversial issue of tyre degradation.

Ferrari continues to make huge strides in conquering China and the Far East, where the Prancing Horse is practically a deity. Dad is a Corse Clienti driver, so junior’s privileges will soon extend beyond branded headphones, overalls and cap.

The F12tdf made its world debut during the World Finals at Mugello, although topgear.com would bump into Vettel 24 hours later following his test drive in the new car at Fiorano. The gentleman to his right is Piero Ferrari, Enzo’s son and a 10 per cent shareholder in the company.

Ferrari’s recent flotation on the New York Stock Exchange values it at somewhere north of £10bn, so Piero has lots to smile about these days.

René Arnoux was one of four drivers in with a shout of winning the 1983 world championship at the final race in South Africa, when he was driving for Ferrari.

The Scuderia sacked him after just one race in 1985, in circumstances that remain unexplained to this day. Now an advisor to Ferrari’s Corse Clienti programme, he tutors FXXK owners. As brave as ever, clearly.

As far as we know, Ferrari’s merchandise doesn’t yet run to dog jackets, or indeed dogs. But this lady not only managed to find one, she also got it signed by Raikkonen and Vettel (the jacket that is, not the pooch).

This was one of 14 FXXKs at this year’s World Finals, driven by long-standing Ferrari dealer and GT3 racing driver Ronnie Kessel.

Lapo Elkann, grandson of Gianni Agnelli and one of the main shareholders of FCA and Ferrari, emerged after a couple of laps looking suitably energised. Lapo’s latest venture, Garage Italia Customs, had its logos all over the car.

Ferrari’s Corse Clienti division runs all sorts of racing activities and events, and is now so successful it has an annual turnover of £350m.

Not everyone loves the idea of selling off the family silver, but let’s face it, what’s worse – letting these old soldiers rot in a museum or flogging them to some of Ferrari’s most committed (and wealthiest) clients to live on as the ultimate track day warriors?

Nor were their new owners shy about giving these things the full beans around Mugello, a track that doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Hats off to them.

Although the XX programme is not a racing series, and despite the fact that the track was bone dry, accidents do happen. Especially at Mugello.

We watched this guy bash out the 599XX’s front wing with a lump hammer. Ah well, it’s only a £1.2m car…

Oops. This 458 GT2 was taking part in the Ferrari Challenge showdown, so this definitely was a racing accident.

There were 14 ex-F1 cars at this year’s world finals, including an ex-Schumacher F2001 and 248 (from 2006, his last season with Ferrari), along with chassis built for Barrichello, Raikkonen, and Massa.

Listening to the noise they made, echoing around the Tuscan countryside, leaves you in no doubt that the current F1 generation sound like a bunch of broken lawnmowers by comparison.

Despite persistent rumours and even details of an aborted LMP1 project, Ferrari’s presence in the WEC remains limited to the GT3 and new GTE classes. Mind you, the new 488, which made its world debut at the World Finals, is hardly shabby.

Balance of performance regs will see it run a lot less power than the 661bhp road car, and its seven-speed dual clutch ’box will be replaced with a more robust race-spec sequential.

Has a job to do: the 458 GT2 scored multiple class wins at Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring.

A year ago, the FXXK debuted at the World Finals in Abu Dhabi. Among the 14 that appeared in Mugello this year was this car, owned by Dallas-based businessman Jonathan Taylor.

Livery is almost a nod to classic Lotus Seventies JPS, and was personally devised by Ferrari’s design director Flavio Manzoni.

The air brake on FXXK is pretty busy around Mugello. These cars are pulling close to 200mph on the run up the main straight.

We tried to track down the guy with the cojones big enough to gatecrash Ferrari’s annual party in a green Lamborghini Huracan.

The messages broadcast over the PA system suggested that whoever managed it probably didn’t leave with those aforementioned cojones intact.

This is the face of a man who has not been driving a Red Bull in 2015. Or a McLaren. 

Ferrari walked away from top-level endurance racing in the early 1970s, to focus on F1. But there was a brief comeback in the 1990s with the 333 SP, which was designed primarily to go racing in the American IMSA World Series, during a prolonged F1 hiatus in the US.

The chassis was designed by the great Gianpaolo Dallara, and the 333 SP used a modified version of the F50’s 4.7-litre V12, with an ear-splitting 12,000rpm red line. A total of 40 were made, two of which were at Mugello.

F1 steering wheels get their own Prancing Horse sleeping bags.

#keepfightingmichael

We’re not sure who’s pulling who.

The 599XX was the lab car whose findings would make their way into the F12tdf. Good experiment, chaps.

That’s almost 2100bhp, right there. And 24 cylinders. Or upwards of £5m…