
This, combined with the ABS and standard Carbon Ceramic brakes, have caused a reduction in stopping distance from 100–0 km/h (62-0 mph) to 32.5 metres (107 ft).

The brakes include a prefill function whereby the pistons in the calipers move the pads into contact with the discs on lift off to minimize delay in the brakes being applied. The car's suspension has double wishbones at the front and a multi-link setup at the rear, coupled with E-Diff and F1-Trac traction control systems, designed to improve the car's cornering and longitudinal acceleration by 32% when compared with its predecessors. There is no traditional manual option, making this the first mainstream model to not be offered with a manual transmission. The only transmission available on the 458 is a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox by Getrag, in a different state of tune shared with the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. The engine features direct fuel injection, which is a first for Ferrari mid-engine setups in its road cars.

The 458 is powered by a 4,497 cc (4.5 L 274.4 cu in) engine of the "Ferrari/Maserati" F136 V8 family, generating a power output of 570 PS (419 kW 562 hp) at 9,000 rpm ( redline) and 540 N⋅m (398 lb⋅ft) of torque at 6,000 rpm with 80% torque available at 3,250 rpm.
