Maserati Innovation Lab is the Maserati engineering centre in Modena. It is at this facility of excellence that all the Maserati models of today and tomorrow are developed. Here, digital processes support the product's development, applying the exclusive Maserati formula which adopts an integrated approach to prioritise the human factor right from the initial phases: customer-focus is incorporated in the world of virtual simulation with an exclusive hardware-software mix.
Maserati MC20 started to take shape in these very laboratories, where the Maserati engineers developed the car’s design.
The digital processes to support product development lie in three large areas: the Static Simulator, the new, latest-generation DiM (Driver-in-Motion) Dynamic Simulator with 9 degrees of freedom, and the "User eXperience” development labs.
The Product Development Hub (or Technical Department) employs more than 1,500 technical staff (spread over the Via Emilia Ovest, Viale Ciro Menotti and Via Delle Nazioni sites in Modena, and the Grugliasco and Balocco locations). The Via Emilia Ovest complex in particular, with an area of 33,744 square metres (14,000 m2 of buildings and 19,744 m2 of yards), employs more than 1,100 people, the vast majority of them graduate engineers, who originate from 17 different countries. The very young, dynamic work force has an average age of about 37; almost half the employees are under 35 and 20% actually under 30. The organisation has expanded considerably in the last few years, attracting the best talents from Italy’s top universities, with which Maserati has active partnerships.
The development of the MC20 in the Maserati Innovation Lab
More than 90% of the MC20’s vehicle dynamics were developed with the aid of virtual models, using an innovative approach called Virtual Vehicle Dynamics Development, managed by Maserati in-house.
The method maximises the input from virtual development in the car’s final approval and is based on a complex mathematical model called “Virtual Car”, which reproduces all the car’s physical systems and control logics with impact on the vehicle dynamics. During development, all the engineers, assisted by expert test drivers, work on the “Virtual Car”, to enable real-time testing of a very large number of setups, with step-by-step selection of the best technical solutions, which will then be verified during the final setup, perfected through road testing.
The virtual development of the MC20 cut delivery times by enabling the team of engineers to evaluate countless alternatives, in order to achieve the optimal configuration with low costs and greater precision, even before the road-testing of prototypes. The central role in this operation was played by the team of engineers at the Maserati Innovation Lab, who were able to exploit all the technology available in the new Modena Labs. The car was tested on the simulator, over thousands of working hours, by test driver Andrea Bertolini, who liaised with the Maserati engineers on a daily basis to complete this futuristic project. Naturally, the final tuning took place on the road, which has always been the fundamental proving ground for Maserati test drivers, to decide the concluding optimisations.
