Luca di Montezemolo has been ousted at Ferrari. His position has been filled by Fiat/Chrysler supremo Sergio Marchionne himself. Apparently the fact that Di Montezemolo opposed floating Ferrari on the stock market caused the dispute.
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Luca di Montezemolo has been ousted at Ferrari. His position has been filled by Fiat/Chrysler supremo Sergio Marchionne himself. Apparently the fact that Di Montezemolo opposed floating Ferrari on the stock market caused the dispute.
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
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Statement from Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo
“Ferrari will have an important role to play within the FCA Group in the upcoming flotation on Wall Street. This will open up a new and different phase which I feel should be spearheaded by the CEO of the Group.
This is the end of an era and so I have decided to leave my position as Chairman after almost 23 marvellous and unforgettable years in addition to those spent at Enzo Ferrari’s side in the 1970s.
My thanks, first and foremost, to the exceptional Ferrari women and men from the factory, the offices, the race tracks and the markets across the world. They were the real architects of the company’s spectacular growth, its many unforgettable victories and its transformation into one of the world’s strongest brands.
A warm farewell and my thanks also to all of our technical and commercial partners, our dealers across the globe and, most particularly, the clients and collectors whose passion I so wholeheartedly share.
But my thoughts go also to our fans who have always supported us with great enthusiasm especially through the Scuderia’s most difficult moments.
Ferrari is the most wonderful company in the world. It has been a great privilege and honour to have been its leader. I devoted all of my enthusiasm and commitment to it over the years. Together with my family, it was, and continues to be, the most important thing in my life.
I wish the shareholders, particularly Piero Ferrari who has always been by my side, and everyone in the Company the many more years of success that Ferrari deserves.”
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
Furniture
I can't say that I am happy with this development. Montezemolo has always been an irritating character for me from the personal POV; he comes across as brash and arrogant in PR/interview related things. However, I think he has shepherded Ferrari very well, putting aside what I see as their (meaningless?) recent slump in F1, aggressive dealing gaming with the press (see Chris Harris' expose on Jalopnik), and the apparent disregard Ferrari NA has for its customers.
Their cars, at least from a performance and interior perspective, are top notch, and sales and profits from the company under his tenure have been strong. That they are not that attractive is more subjective and less important. Marchionne is potentially even more brash than Luca, and FCA doesn't seem to have the firmest footing under his peculiar wheeling and dealings. The rumours leaked over the last few days of there being a personality and brand direction conflict between the two leave me troubled. Ferrari is a golden goose: leave it and let it do what it does best. Write cheques for them. From a position of arrogance, my assumption that this is how Tata runs Jaguar, put the right people in place, give them cash, and let them develop superb product. This has worked well. Marchionne will diddle and potentially do odd things e.g. listing on the NYSE/NASDAQ.
I do wonder what his next play will be.
Furniture
I think it's easy to say that Ferrari will have a SUV. And probably a sedan because the badge sells.
It's low hanging fruit that's too hard to resist.
It's like the celebrity chef that added their name to frozen foods. It's not the right thing to do, but who cares when it sells?
It's sort of like Porsche with the Cayenne, Panamera and the Macan. We turn a blind eye because it keeps them selling the Cayman, Boxster and 918s.
Fanatic
Part of the head-butting with Serge is said to be around the 7K limit per year. I think diluting the brand would be stupendously foolish, especially when they have Maserati there that they can use to badge the same dang cars. Make a Maser SUV and sell it to the Ferrari loyalists instead of their Range Rovers. Call them sister brands, sell them out of the same dealerships, whatever, but leave Ferrari badges on Ferraris.
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
Furniture
Point 1. Ferrari won't list on the NYSE/NASDAQ
Point 2. Ferrari will not make SUVs or saloons.
Point 3. Montezemolo was ousted because he wanted an independent Ferrari and Marchionne didn't
Essentially, Ferrari will up its production volumes a bit (7k to 10k is the most touted figure) and they will also become a more integral part of Fisler (perhaps in the often rumoured Polo di Lusso with Maserati and Alfa Romeo).
The poor F1 results were more of an excuse than anything else.
If you can read in Spanish, es.autoblog.com has lots of interesting insider info.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
Furniture
I agree- if Fisler wanted to whore out a brand, they have plenty of brands to whore out- Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Lancia. It would be stupid to do it to Ferrari, that's sacred.Originally Posted by pimento
Ferrari has made estate cars though- the 456 wagon for the Sultan of Brunei. I'm curious what the back seats look like.
The F12 went 4WD, I would say never is a strong word.
Furniture
Pininfarina also made a saloon concept car.
Never is a strong word indeed, but I wouldn't say Marchionne forced Montezemolo out because one wanted to make saloons and SUVs and the other didn't; it's more to do with the details of managing Ferrari rather than its general direction.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
Furniture
Oh LOL.
Also, because relevant.
Marchionne to become Pope Sniff Petrol
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
Furniture
I tend to agree - and hope that - Ferrer is correct.
Fanatic
Apparently Marchionne is at least inititally just lifting it to 10K units, focussing on ramping up F12 production. Apparently there's a long waiting list for it.
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
Furniture
More V12s can't possibly be an entirely bad thing.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
Furniture
I thought an arbitrary production number was dumb, as long as the product remains high quality. I doubt making 10k instead of 7k pa is gonna make Ferraris undesirable/junky.
Mind, if they start pulling some excessive part sharing crap and sedans, SUVs, and crappier entry level stuff, LdM leaving will be the moment we will all point to.
Furniture
I think that in a way LdM had a romantic vision of Ferrari; it wasn't measured in objective terms in the automotive business landscape. It just went on its own without caring what others, the market or costumers wanted; hence the annual production limit. That's (somewhat) very petrolhead-ish.
SM, on the other hand, is just businessman. And if you can sell 10k cars at an X price tag you are not going to limit yourself to 7k cars. It just makes no sense. Also if you can share, electrics, infotainment systems and so on and so forth to lower costs and win more money, well then so be it indeed.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
Furniture
Both Autoblog and Jalopnik did it, so let's do it: top five cars of the Montezemolo era. We'll discount cars in production when he took over, but allow ones that started after he just arrived (even though I doubt he'd have much input in the 456, say).
I will order mine.
1. F355. I don't drink the Rosso Corsa Kool-Aid like so many, but when they hit all the notes this company is spectacular and I will say it: this is their best car, and the best car ever made. Boom.
2. 456. 90s Ferrari style; a sweet GT. Keep the headlights down.
3. 458. The best in its class; a fire breathing, naturally aspirated monster. Turbos, DIAF. Read it and weep Lambo and Macca and all other comers.
It gets hard now.
4. 550/575. These cars never appealed to me much at the time (visually), and still don't; but UCP groupthink has had an affect on me. I have enough of the wee Ferraris on this list that a nice GT with a V12 had to be up higher. The 360 was gunning for this spot, because I loved the 360 when it was new, but it has aged poorly and is now kinda trashy to me, but...
5. I'll give the 360 the edge over the 430. At least the 360 stirred me much more when it debuted; the 430 never did too much for me. The last one battling for 5th would be the 599.
End.
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