Great article. https://www.racefans.net/2018/07/26/far-reaching-consequences-ferraris-unforeseen-leadership-change/
The next year at Ferrari will be interesting to watch. It looks to me that Ferrari is going "global" in its management, and less Italian. How long Ferrari will still be considered an Italian brand ?
I suppose one way to answer to this might be to look at Lamborghini - do we consider them less Italian now that they're part of a larger German auto group?
Don't forget, Fiat's oil division is now the brains behind Petronas, Pinninfarina is owned by Mahindra, Ducati is still owned by Audi. Italians are not the best managers in the world and seeking global talent is what Ferrari has always done. In fact I knew the Scotsman, who lived in Varana above Maranello (and the origin of my Dad's family), and was responsible for all the composit work on Michael Schumacher's F1 cars. I think the real question is: Can the new management team implement the Marchionne plan. Do they have the vision, fortitude and desire?
From Automotive News this afternoon: http://europe.autonews.com/article/20180802/ANE/180809923/ferraris-new-ceo-says-marchionne-target-is-aspirational?cciid=email-ane-daily
Ferrari to be renamed Scuderia Philip Morris perhaps ? It looks to me that more Marlboro management is moving in at Maranello.
“Marchionne said in February that Ferrari plans to double its profit to 2 billion euros within five years.” ...that certainly is “ambitious”
I don't think Arrivabene has any influence on race results; he has been put at the helm of the Scuderia by Philip Morris to control how the sponsorship money is spent by the team. As for the new Ferrari CEO, Calilleri, he is another Philip Morris plant to control their investment. These people are no "car guys", they have no experience of motor racing in any capacity tjat I know of, they are just businessmen and Ferrari will change Under their tenure, surely. The transition, started Under de Montezemolo, will move Ferrari further from the company Enzo Ferrari created.
You have to remember the whole idea of floating Ferrari as a separate company was to boost its company value to that of luxury goods makers, which is what Ferrari is. I've never been a smoker, but one thing Philip Morris did when it entered the Italian cigarette market (I think in the late 1960s/early 1970s) it became the dominate player. At the time, the Italian cigarette market was controlled by the government. I don't know what PM did but it became over time, the leading cigarette company. So I think PM management is: - capable - understands the problems in the market place - knows how to deliver results Marchionne didn't know anything about cars until he joined Fiat and his team outperformed Montezemolo's last team easily. I'd say, let's watch what happens. I am interested in the stock price. When SM bought into Fiat stock a few years ago at $9/share, I put some money as well. And believe me, it payed off. When Ferrari was split off, my $65 / share gift has literally doubled. The owners don't want to go back to Ford or GM stock price performance.
Yes, I hear you loud and clear, but my concern is that Ferrari is now in the hands of businessmen, rather than car lovers. For Ferrari fans, market shares, stock prices, etc ... don't mean much if the image of Ferrari becomes diluted by increased production, lost of exclusivity, diminished image, lack of success on the track, etc... Not all the tifosi play the stock market, but a Scuderia GP win means a lot to them. Putting tobacco executives and accountants at the head of a luxury car company, and the most successful racing team ever, rings alarm bells with me. I would rather see engineers, designers and people who have climbed the ladder in F1 to look after the Prancing Horse, than advertising gurus. Maybe I am from a different generation when passion was more important than bank balance ...
This is a very valid concern. All I can say is from what I’ve read Camilleri loves F1 and Lucca said he was a good fit. Lucca trained with Enzo and was the greatest thing to happen to Ferrari since Enzo. I trust his opinion.
Sounds like Kimi will be playing second fiddle to Seb for at least another season to me...during times of instability, the modest/conservative choices tend to be the more common happenstance. As for the road-going side of Ferrari, irregardless of who is placed where, production will undoubtedly ramp up beyond 10,000 cars annually...
If Camilieri loves F1, and to run Ferrari, you have to love its racing program and its cars. And if you have a businessman with a vision, I expect the results will be great. Far better than having an accountant (no disrespect to anyone here who is an accountant) who continually looks after numbers rather than passion to run the business.
My guess with the new SUV production will go up and beyond 10,000. I can imagine every Ferrari owner wanting one.
Neither was Flavio. Toto had an investment company and shares in Williams before he joined Merc. At the end of the day, team principals are leaders and the teams are ultimately businesses. Along the way they also develop the organizational structure and culture within the teams.
With that logic, Ferrari could make a lot of money and many shareholders quite happy if it simply re-bagged JEEP Gran Cheerokee with a prancing horse on the bonnet. The brand would lose all exclusivity, there would be no autherntic DNA left, the cars could even be produced cheaply in China, and (almost) everybody could afford one. SUVs are for mass market, not 10,000 and mass market doesn't ring well with a luyxury brand, IMO. If that's the future for Ferrari, so be it ...
Toto was an amateur racer before he became an investment expert. I think he ran a small F3 team in Germany at some point. So he had some insight. Flavio was an exception, but he took to F1 like a fish to water. But I am more concerned by Ferrari the car business being taken over by accountants and marketing guys.
Not sure where you've been during the better half of the last decade, but that has already happened, with the wick being turned up with each passing year.