There’s a Secret Trick to Engage Neutral in a Bricked Ferrari SF90

If you thought German engineering was sometimes overwrought, the Italians would like you to hold their beer. As if anticipating zero to little need for SF90 drivers to put the plug-in hybrid supercar into neutral, Ferrari requires a two-piece tool and a visit to the engine bay to engage the gear if the 12-volt battery’s all out of juice.

GVE Servicing, a London-based luxury and supercar service center, shared an eye-opening video explaining how to access neutral in a Ferrari SF90 when the electronic buttons that normally control the transmission aren’t functioning properly. Neutral becomes an important gear should your dead Ferrari EV need a tow, which is how this all came about.

According to the shop’s master tech, SuperCarBruce, a recovery company contacted him because it had no idea how to shift the vehicle into neutral in order to move it, and couldn’t find the answer online. As it turns out, there’s no failsafe lever in the SF90’s interior. Instead, the manual override is behind the driver—in the engine bay.

However, before you can get to it, you have to grab items from the emergency tool kit located in the frunk. Yes—not only does this process require you to get out of the driver’s seat, but it also involves trips to both ends of the car.

With low-tech tools in hand, including what looks like a really big Allen wrench, Bruce walks over to the engine bay and points to an unmarked, insignificant hole. Turns out, that’s our access point. More steps follow, including assembly of the tool (not a joke). Once the bar’s inserted into the hole and turned, voila—we get a big “N” in the gauge cluster.

The lesson? As Bruce points out in another video, it doesn’t matter whether you own a Ferrari or a more commonplace hybrid or EV; these cars still have 12-volt batteries, and they need to be charged too, or else you’re not going anywhere. Or, in this case, getting a tow.

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