The Ferrari SF90, created to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Scuderia designed and built by Enzo Ferrari, was the Prancing Horse’s last competitive car in Formula 1, winning a few races with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel before its decline with the 2020 car, the SF1000.

Now, the SF21, the car created to redeem a bad year, will be driven by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. However, an unauthorised fibreglass replica of the SF90 from Brazil was confiscated in La Spezia by the Guardia di Finanza and the Customs Office at the port of La Spezia.

The 1:1 scale single-seater was without mechanical and electrical parts and was discovered in a container which arrived in Italy directly from Brazil and was then sent to a car dealer in Tuscany.

Investigators sent photographic evidence of the reproduction to Ferrari SPA, which in turn confirmed that the reproduction was of a protected model registered as a Community design.

The livery is devoid of any kind of sponsors or logos, but the reference to the SF90 is quite clear, which is why the seizure was made by the police led by Major Luigi Mennella.

The car is not the only unauthorised reproduction that has been seized by the police, in fact, alongside the Red, a McLaren MP4/4, one of the most extraordinary Formula 1 cars in history, was recovered.

The car that raced in the 1988 season and gave rise to one of motorsport’s greatest rivalries, that between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. It was also the first car to give the late Brazilian driver, who died in Bologna on 1 May 1994, his world championship title.