Did Montezemolo make the best Fcars?

Perhaps not only Montezemolo formed this era, perhaps Schumacher too.

Daniel

 

People like to rewrite history all the time. LdM was the best (for me he was also the one who screwed up big time with Maserati), and the current Ferrari cars (starting with the 488) are crap...
LdM left Ferrari in October 2014, and the 488 was publicly unveiled in February 2015. Which means that the 488 was definitely commissionned under LdM's tenure. Since the Pista and F8 are closely derived from the 488, and the 812 is closely derived from the F12, the only real new generation car (post LdM) is the SF90 Stradale and it has still to reach customers.

 

valid points: all.

and let's narrow this down to specific items as I'm still a dreamer for a 60's 'something' and the prices are looking good.

 

I think Ferrari has generally done well under a firm hand, and less well under "corporate" leadership. Enzo, of course, was a classically firm hand, and after he passed (and even a few years before), the company sort of drifted. LdM came in and was another firm hand, like him or hate him, and the company and the products did very well. What happens going forward, who knows... I think they are still carrying through LdM's vision, but not for much longer.

The "firm hand" approach is not only applicable to personal vision and leadership, but also the people who the leader brings in. That's what really shapes the outcome.

 

in what sense?

 

There is no doubt in my mind that the two towering figures responsible for the legend of Ferrari are:
1. Ferrari
2. LdM

 

The newer cars are much more reliable than the LdM era cars (He was still at Ferrari as the car's quality began to improve and he certainly had a big hand in improving quality). I am confident LdM would agree that Ferrari cars today are more reliable than ever before. There is a reason why Ferrari offers some type of warranty for up to 15 years now on all their cars now and 7 years of free service too. I am around pre-LdM, LdM and post Ldm Ferrari's every day and there really is no comparison in terms of build quality.

All that being said LdM is my hero. He is why I love the brand - as most of my favorite Ferrari's tend to be from the era when he was running the company. I hope at some point there will be a chance for him to come back to Ferrari in some capacity.

 

From 1997 to 2006 Ferrari was controlling Maserati (by the decision of Fiat) and instead of developping it (which would have allowed to grow the Ferrari-Maserati group without diluting Ferrari's exclusivity) it let it stagnate (failing to have Maserati sales numbers higher than Ferrari's, in spite of models positioned on lower market segments) until Fiat eventually decided to take Maserati back to build a luxury branch with Alfa Romeo. Ferrari's missed opportunity with Maserati is what led to the current situation where Ferrari needs to increase its sales numbers with the risk of brand dilution, because they do not have other development options now.