Ferrari's Curious "Recall"

What's it all about, Elkann?

If you believe the official version of the story, it was a crash heard ‘round the world.

A Ferrari 458 crashes at a trackday on the Circuito de Jarama in Spain. The footage appears to show a brake failure of some sort on the main straight, at which point the driver cuts the corner and cranks the wheel to the right before impact.

(Brief but important digression: If you need to leave a racetrack in a hurry, you should endeavor to hit the tire wall or steel barrier with the nose of your car, not the door. I’m not aware of a single vehicle on the market across the past three or four decades that is safer in a side impact than it is in a front impact. It’s a natural human reaction to turn away from an impending crash. That natural human reaction will get you injured, crippled, or killed. Straighten the wheel as you approach impact, then put your hands on your thighs and pray.)

Now, approximately a year later, Ferrari is recalling a variety of cars from 2005 to the present day for replacement of the brake fluid reservoir cap. “The cap could fail to vent, allowing an excess of pressure inside the brake lines. This is an extension of NHTSA recall 21V-833.”

Oh, okay.

Except brake fluid caps don’t work like that.

And the quoted recall is for a leaking master cylinder and booster assembly on the 2010-2019 Ferrari 458 and 488.

Something’s rotten in Maranello.

Maybe.

But what?

Turns out I know a few people who have some ideas.