2013LaFerrari
Design director · Ferrari Styling Centre
The first Ferrari road car styled entirely by the company rather than Pininfarina. Manzoni’s team drew it in close cooperation with the technical departments — the in-house era begins here.
AI-generatedPeople · Designer · b. 1965
Flavio
l’architetto di Maranello
- Born
- Nuoro, Sardinia, 1965
- Trained
- Architecture, Florence
- House
- Ferrari Styling Centre, 2010–
- In the register
- Fourteen files
The in-house era
Since January 2010, Manzoni has led Ferrari’s design from within. LaFerrari was the first road car styled entirely by the company rather than Pininfarina, and everything since — special series, one-offs, an Icona, a supercar — has been drawn a corridor away from the engineers it answers to.
An architect by training — Florence, with an industrial-design specialisation — he arrived through the interiors of Lancia and SEAT, the design direction of Fiat, and Volkswagen Group’s creative studios. His constant claim is that form and function are developed together, not sequentially; the register below holds the fourteen files where that argument is documented.
Form and function, developed as one
The register
From LaFerrari to the F80
2013
2015Ferrari F12tdf
Design director · Ferrari Styling Centre
A special series named for the Tour de France endurance race Ferrari dominated in the 1950s and 1960s. His team owned the body and its aerodynamic treatment.
2022Daytona SP3
Chief design officer · Ferrari Design
The second Icona, named for the 1967 Daytona 1–2–3. Manzoni’s team translated 1960s sports-prototype language into contemporary, passive-aero forms — the shape does the aerodynamic work.
2024Ferrari 12Cilindri
Design director · Ferrari Styling Centre
The 812’s sculptural language replaced with a geometric visor and split active rear surfaces — a deliberate new design language for the front-mid-engined V12 line, led by function rather than retro replication.
2025Ferrari F80
Design director · Ferrari Styling Centre
The narrow 1+ cabin, the visor front, the active-aero body — developed with engineering, aerodynamics and ergonomics in continuous collaboration. The supercar as one integrated argument.
Also in the register
From the 458 Speciale to the KC23
Signature strokes
The visor, the vent, the subtraction
Design inside engineering
The Styling Centre sits in synergy with engineering — external surface linked to internal component, form developed with the machine, never applied afterward.
Aero made legible
The 296 Speciale wears its downforce; the Daytona SP3 uses passive aero as the formal driver. The technical function is the visible subject, not a secret.
Subtraction
The team’s stated method is removing the superfluous. Recent cars are volume-led and clean — nothing decorates, everything works.
Heritage without retro
The 296 GTB draws on the 250 LM’s compact architecture; the Daytona SP3 on 1960s prototypes. Source material, never a template.
The visor
Wraparound visor glazing, tried on the J50 and P80/C, returns on the 12Cilindri and F80 — the cabin read as a single optical band.
The archive
Prints from the studio
Event photographs, an editorial portrait and one reconstruction — choose a print and it pushes the others aside.
Paris Motor Show, 2018. Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Before Maranello
From the Lybra to the Fulvia Coupé
Lancia and Maserati interiors
Lancia Lybra
Complete interior design for saloon and station wagon.
Maserati 3200 GT
Complete interior-design work, presented in 1998.
Lancia Dialogos
Concept-car interior.
Lancia Thesis
Interior-design programme.
SEAT interior programmes
SEAT Salsa
Show-car interior project.
SEAT Altea
Complete interior-design project.
SEAT Salsa Emoción
Complete interior, shown at Paris in 2000.
SEAT Tango
Complete interior for the concept, Geneva 2001.
Lancia design direction
Lancia Granturismo
Concept project.
Lancia Ypsilon
Coordinated production project.
Lancia Musa
Coordinated project, shown at Geneva in 2004.
Lancia Fulvia Coupé
Coordinated concept, shown at IAA Frankfurt and Bologna.
The houses
Manzoni’s house is the one he runs: the Ferrari Styling Centre, which under his direction became the sole author of the marque’s road cars — LaFerrari the first styled entirely in-house. The path there ran through the interiors studios of Lancia and SEAT, the design direction of the Fiat Group, and Volkswagen Group’s creative-design directorship.
Chief design officer, Ferrari, 2010–
1993–1999
Designer; led Lancia interiors from 1996
Designer; led Lancia interiors from 19961999–2001
SEAT, Spain
Interior-design responsibility2001–2006
Fiat Group
Head of design, Lancia, Fiat and LCV2007–2010
Volkswagen Group
Director of creative design2010–
Head of design; today chief design officer
Head of design; today chief design officerIn his words
“Perhaps it is only experts who can really appreciate just how interconnected form and function have become.”
Flavio Manzoni · Ferrari Magazine, 2020