Ferrari recalls cars over airbag fault

The Ferrari F12 was among the models recalled (Getty)

Ferrari is recalling 814 vehicles because of an airbag fault. The Italian supercar manufacturer found that its airbags, made by the Japanese manufacturer Takata, have a tendency to inflate from the wrong angle, increasing the risk of driver injury in a collision.

The recall of vehicles built between December 2014 and April 2015 covers the 458 Italia, the Spider, the Speciale, the Speciale A, the FF, the F12 Berlinetta, the California T and the LaFerrari models. The vehicles are sold for between $200,000 and $1.4m each (£123,000-£895,000).

In a statement, Ferrari said it had been informed by the Takata Corporation of “a production non-conformance issue with the driver-side airbags… installed in several cars built in 2015”.

The airbag fault was discovered when Ferrari was doing tests on a 458 Italia’s steering column, according to documents posted to America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website yesterday.

The defect is not connected to Takata’s exploding airbag crisis, which prompted the largest vehicle recall in American history.

Ferrari, which is in the process of being spun out of Fiat Chrysler, was forced to recall 3,000 of its 458 models sold in North America last September on account of malfunctioning latches in the front luggage compartment.