Strangest of Speed Records: A Ferrari at Full Throttle on an Aircraft Carrier
For most, an aircraft carrier is nothing more than a floating fortress. For Italian racer Fabio Barone, it was the perfect straight-line challenge—a place to prove that courage, precision and horsepower can coexist on a deck built for fighter jets, not Ferraris.
Barone took the wheel of a Ferrari SF90 Stradale and unleashed it across the 236-metre deck of the Italian carrier Trieste. Out of that span, 205 metres were usable for acceleration and braking. The result: a blistering 164 km/h before clamping down on the carbon-ceramic brakes. With that, Barone eclipsed his own 2024 benchmark of 152 km/h, set on the smaller carrier Garibaldi.
This was no spur-of-the-moment stunt. The record attempt took nine months of preparation, with last-minute drama thrown in for good measure. On the eve of the run, Trieste had spent the night at sea, and rain left the deck slick. The team feared that braking distances could spiral into danger. Only when the morning sun dried the surface did the green light appear for history to be made.
Barone is hardly new to audacious feats. The Italian already holds seven Guinness World Records, including a breathtaking ascent of China’s serpentine Tianmen Road. Whether this latest exploit will be recognised by Guinness remains uncertain, pending official verification of the data.
One fact is beyond doubt: where most people see a colossal warship, Fabio Barone sees a racetrack. And in the Ferrari SF90 Stradale, he found the weapon to turn steel and tarmac into a moment of unrepeatable speed.
