At the end of December, the name Ferrari HC25 surfaced in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s records. On paper it is only a trademark filing, yet the combination of letters and numbers feels too distinctly Ferrari to ignore. The brand has long run its Special Projects program, where invited long-standing clients commission one-off cars built on an existing chassis. Typically there are one or two of these unveilings a year, and for 2025 one such bespoke project, inspired by the marque’s legendary era, has already made an appearance.

Fans tend to read the logic of these names this way: the initial letters often echo the buyer’s initials, while the number can be tied to a key detail of the brief—from a nod to the donor model to the year of the reveal. If the number 25 points to 2025, Ferrari could, at least in theory, present another exclusive machine right at the year’s finish. It’s also worth remembering that filings are often made in advance to protect intellectual property and, on their own, don’t guarantee a real-world premiere.

Even so, the intrigue is elegant. Ferrari has honed this format over the years, and each new name usually signals a very expensive vision translated into metal and carbon—precisely the kind of story that makes a dry line in a registry feel like a curtain about to lift.