The meeting between these two "superb examples of Italian excellence" took place in Verona, where the champion trains by swimming at least 20 kilometres in the pool daily.

To celebrate the meeting, the record-breaking international female swimmer appeared with a beautiful scarf in the colours of the Italian flag which blended beautifully with the elegant white of the GranTurismo S Automatic delivered to her.  The GranTurismo S Automatic is the latest new model from Maserati powered by a 4,700 cc V8 engine with 440 HP and a maximum speed of 295 km/h, revealed to the international press in Modena last May.

The model completes Maserati’s coupé range, which also includes the GranTurismo 4.2 with an automatic gearbox and the GranTurismo S 4.7 with an electro-actuated gearbox.

"I’ve always liked sports cars: They’ve always fascinated me from when I was a child, " Federica says. "It’s a passion that I haven’t inherited from anyone in my family. Probably the truth is that I’m particularly attracted to anything that has to do with speed." Federica and the GranTurismo connected immediately.

When Federica set the world record for the first time, she said in an interview that her dream prize is a GranTurismo.

"The GranTurismo is the car of my dreams. I believe a car should reflect the personality of the person driving it. I can see myself in this car, in its elegance, refinement and obviously in its sporting flair."

Sporting flair that does not stand in the way of comfort, given that the GranTurismo is the only coupe in its category to have four proper seats, where four adult passengers can travel comfortably.

There are so many similarities between speed travelled in water and the performance of a sports car: "Power, concentration, drive are all common ingredients, when we speak about top performance." In actual fact, the quest for absolute performance, the ability to fire up and create strong emotions are some of the traits common to both the world of sports cars and the world of swimming.