Ferrari Roma Spider review

Beautifully made, and a lovely place to sit. But Ferrari’s bold adventures in the world of HMI continue. It starts with the engine start/stop button, which is a touchpad on the bottom of the steering wheel. And it gets worse from there.

Yep, along with everyone else, Ferrari has opted for capacitive multi-touch controls on the steering wheel. The touchpad on the left spar operates the adaptive cruise control, meanwhile the audio and other functions are navigated via a touchpad on the right. And they’re exactly as painful to use as they sound. They deactivate after 15 seconds of inactivity while you’re on the move to avoid accidentally pressing anything, and require a double tap to switch back on.

As ever, some things are just better done using physical buttons rather than jabbing at a screen or trying to persuade your thumbs to get onboard. The long-serving wheel-mounted manettino remains tangible and elegant proof of this thesis.

What about the screens?

The main instrument display is a configurable 16in curved HD screen with some seriously hi-def graphics. As before, you can configure it in various ways (after a lot of frustration), but almost always end up having the rev counter front and centre.

The 8.4in central screen allows you to control the aircon and multimedia (though you do at least get physical switches and scrolls on the rear of the wheel to cycle between radio stations/songs and adjust the volume), as well as providing the Apple CarPlay or Android Auto interfaces that’ll do most of the connectivity heavy lifting. And we love the gear selector panel that mimics the open gate of classic Ferrari manuals. These are the elements drivers will interact with most often.

All the usual ADAS – advanced driving assist systems, including lane assist and its associated (dys)functionality – are also all present and correct here. Urgh. Fortunately a shortcut on the wheel allows you to switch it all off. And believe us, you’ll want to, unless you like being serenaded by warning chimes.

How does it compare to the coupe?

It’s darker, with a slightly smaller back window, but it stows away tightly to leave a 255-litre boot. There’s even a parcel shelf – of sorts – back there, but it needs to be tucked away if you want the roof down.

The rear seats remain as useless as ever, and anyway, anyone back there would just get in the way of the highly effective popup wind deflector. No, far better to see them for what they are: space for your luggage.