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A radical head-forward cockpit architecture developed by Dutch automotive startup Sanrivatti is gaining scientific validation, with new virtual testing at Silverstone showing that drivers see more than three times as much of the circuit ahead compared with 10 benchmark hypercars and track cars.
The analysis, released October 14, 2026, focused on the approach to Corner Three of the historic Grand Prix circuit. Every car in the simulation was positioned at precisely the same point. The difference, Sanrivatti says, lies in the company’s in-house “Apex Position” layout, which moves the driver forward into a head-leading posture rather than sinking them into a traditional cockpit.
Where a conventional supercar driver stares out through a close windshield and deep bodywork, Sanrivatti’s concept lets the road open up in front of the driver’s eyeline. The measured result is a 3.2x increase in the amount of visible racing surface — but the company insists the real story is not the number itself.
Sanrivatti’s engineers say that raw visibility data only tells part of the story. Instead, they looked at how much of the “defining line” through a corner is actually viewable from the driver’s eye point: the braking marker, the turn-in point, the apex, and the exit.
That distinction matters, says the company, because high-performance driving is as much about anticipation as it is about reaction. If a driver can see the geometry of a corner sooner, they can build a mental image of the ideal line earlier and with greater confidence.
“You see the braking point, turn-in, apex and exit more naturally,” says Santiago Sánchez Rivero, founder and CEO of Sanrivatti. “That changes the fundamental relationship you have with the car.”
The simulation also measured the horizontal field of view across the full peripheral range. Separate CAD analysis found that the Apex Position removes structural pillars and bodywork from the driver’s sightlines almost entirely. The effective limiting factor, Sanrivatti argues, is no longer the car — it’s the natural limits of human eyesight.
The Apex Position philosophy inverts the usual design priority for high-performance cars. Most manufacturers start with mechanical packaging, engine placement or aerodynamic targets, and fit the driver around those choices. Sanrivatti says it begins with the human being, then builds the car around how that person sees, senses and interacts with the road.
That is visible in the vertical field of view as well. The latest CAD-based study compared Apex Position with a benchmark hypercar used as a reference point. Sanrivatti’s architecture achieved a 28-degree vertical field of view, compared with 15.5 degrees for the benchmark — an increase of 80.6%.
The practical difference, especially on circuits with crests, downhill approaches or blind exits, is considerable. A driver who can see more of the road surface has more time to adjust braking pressure, steering angle and throttle application.
To refine that vision, Sanrivatti has built two complementary simulation platforms. The first is a high-fidelity digital engineering simulator, used to test eye positions, sightlines, peripheral vision and cockpit architecture before any metal is cut. The second is a next-generation physical simulator, where engineers and drivers can feel, judge and challenge the same layout in a real-world environment.
According to Sanrivatti, the two tools work as a continuous loop. Lessons from the digital space are validated in physical simulation; findings from the physical simulator then inform prototype hardware; and prototype learnings cycle back into the next round of digital development.
That methodology is already shaping the company’s first physical prototype. Sanrivatti says aerodynamic components and mounting structures are now being assembled, marking the transition from a virtual concept to a tangible machine.
For Sánchez Rivero, the visibility breakthrough is not a styling trick or a marketing slogan. It is the defining element of the brand’s promise: a more intuitive, immediate connection between driver, machine and circuit.
“Virtual development allows us to explore ideas at tremendous speed, but the exciting moment comes when those ideas come to exist in the physical car,” he says. “What we learn digitally informs the simulator. What we experience in the simulator changes the prototype. And what the prototype teaches us feeds straight back into the next iteration.”
Sanrivatti is a young company founded by Sánchez Rivero, who grew up in Uruguay and studied automotive engineering in the Netherlands to pursue a lifelong goal: creating his own car brand. Headquartered at Cleantech Park Arnhem, the startup brings together a small, international team of engineers and designers with “global mindset” ambitions.
The company remains tight-lipped about the hypercar’s full specifications and launch timing. But as its first machine moves ever closer to the road and track, the virtual testing results offer an early glimpse into how Sanrivatti intends to make its name: by giving drivers a view no one has had before.
