If you think the Ferrari Formula One car lining up for today’s Malaysian Grand Prix is the most technologically advanced machine to wear a prancing horse on its flanks, think again. This new 599XX, in some respects at least, makes even the most modern of racing cars seem backward.

What’s more, at £1.2m it’s worth not much less than an F1 car, and with 700bhp it’s not a lot less powerful. Its clever design is possible because, unlike an F1 car, the 599XX has been designed without a rulebook, so it can use devices, particularly in aerodynamics, which, were they to appear on a grand prix car, would have you thrown out of the world championship faster than you can say “Max Mosley”.

In fact, Ferrari has designed the 599XX so it could never be homologated for use either on the road or in any recognised international race series anywhere in the world. It has instead two other roles to play: a mobile technological test bed to allow Ferrari to download terabytes of data for use in future road and racing cars and, of course, the ultimate automotive toy for its most favoured and wealthy customers.

Its basis is the 599 GTB road car, which has 80 fewer horsepower, will still top 200mph, can be used on the road and costs about £1m less than the 599XX. You might think that, for this money, the 599XX would get a carbon-fibre chassis like that other million-pound supercar, the Aston Martin One-77, but the aluminium structure is the same as that found on the 599 GTB, though the body does have a carbon bonnet and boot. The good news, however, is that almost everything else has been changed.

If we start under that bonnet we find a 6-litre V12 superficially similar to that used by the 599 GTB (and the Enzo before it), but modifications to its moving parts designed to reduce friction and inertia, and the use of carbon-fibre intakes to save weight have pushed its power up from 620bhp at 7600rpm, to 700bhp at 9000rpm. The scream from its unsilenced exhausts at 9000rpm is probably one of the most thrilling sounds to come from the back of a car.

Gearchanges are executed via steering-mounted paddles, but while a human can change gear in about 250 milliseconds and a 599 GTB in 100 milliseconds, the 599XX has got it down to 60 milliseconds, around the same time an F1 car took to change gear in the first half of this decade. That said, it’s matched by the shift of a 430 Scuderia road car.

Suspension is to race specification with driver-selectable, computer-controlled strategies for traction control and stability management, while the carbon-ceramic brakes have been optimised for the 599XX’s reduced weight and increased power.

The real innovations come in the area of aerodynamics. These are so critical to track cars that F1 designers consider them a more important component of a car’s overall speed potential than its engine, suspension, tyres, brakes or driver. As the McLaren F1 team found out at last week’s Australian Grand Prix, you can have the best driver and engine on the grid but if your aerodynamics aren’t right, you’re still going to qualify near the back.

It’s easy to see from its jutting front chin, roof spoiler and rear wing, just some of the efforts Ferrari has made to optimise the aerodynamics. The underside of the car is even more important. In fact the key to achieving a good aerodynamic balance between drag and downforce is iron-fisted control of the way the air flows under the car.

To this end the 599XX uses a porous diffuser that allows a controlled and variable amount of air to be extracted from the flow under the car, directed through ducts and sucked out of the rear with the aid of fans in the boot. It even has what it describes as “synthetic jets”, tiny piezo-electric motors that smooth the flow of air exiting the car to gain more downforce. Such devices would be illegal in F1, but they allow the 599XX to minimise drag on the straights to increase speed, and maximise air pressure in corners to increase grip.

Aided by F1-style “doughnuts”, which partially cover the wheels and improve aerodynamics and brake cooling, and a stripped-out interior that helps drop the 599’s weight by 770lb, the 599XX will lap Ferrari’s Fiorano test track in 1min 17sec, some 10sec quicker than a 599 GTB. That said, and to put things in their true perspective, a Ferrari F1 car will lap the track without really trying in less than a minute.

Ferrari will build about 30 599XXs this year (of which just two are rumoured to be heading to the UK), the £1.2m price including three events in each of 2010 and 2011 at which owners will be able to exercise their new playthings. And because their cars are helping Ferrari develop future technologies, owners have the right to call themselves official Ferrari test drivers. To some, that alone will make the investment worth it.

Hot Wheels specs

Engine 5999cc, 12 cylinders

Power 700bhp @ 9000rpm

Torque Not available

Transmission Six-speed paddle shift

Acceleration 0-60mph: 2.8sec (estimated)

Top speed More than 200mph

Price £1.2m

Tax band Not road-registered

Verdict The faint-hearted and shallow of pocket need not apply

On sale Now