LdM as Bernie's successor?.... (Pure speculation, but....)

Hey,

Just posted on Bernie's site;

If the rumors are to be believed, Paul Walsh has already ruled himself out of the running for CEO. Peter B-L is not going to do it.

So, could the (re)appointment of Luca be setting up a succession plan?...... Sweater boy would ****!

As I said just idle speculation, but it does kind of make sense given his background and experience in the sport. And we know he's one hell of a fine politician.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I was just about to post this in rumors. Wow this is intriguing. Ya know, ol' LdM has a history of powerful Italians in his lineage. Though Uncle Sweater may have won a battle. LdM may win the war.

http://m.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117190

 

I really hope this is true, it would be good for Ferrari, and it would be good for F1

 

I hope not.

 

Why? He's proven to be great at running an organization successfully.

 

I guess I'd kind of like to see it. Despite being a "clown hack lawyer" he's done pretty well over the years.

I can see him being a decent leader of F1 - He certainly knows his way around, but I'm not sure how good he'd be for Ferrari....

- Does he harbor any bitterness towards sweater boy?
- *If* (& it's a *huge* if) he was to do it he'd have to be seen to be 100% neutral. May even need to be 'harder' on Ferrari than the others (?) similar to JT at the FIA in some ways - Many thought he'd be good for Ferrari too.......

Cheers,
Ian

 

Yeah but how crap was Ferrari's record under LDM's leadership?

At least now they have a far more consistent and definitive course that they're following!

There's no more wishy-washy decision making going on, they're following one plan only now! - Sack everyone!
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please don't get me started on LDM. Simply not a fan.

 

So are you a fan of how things are now going without him?

 

phil,

it has been a long time since I was happy with the way things have been going at Ferrari. answer: I am no more happy of the Ferrari direction than I was under luca in in the last 15 years.

 

Fair enough! (although I thought 2000~2004 were pretty good )

 

Ok I understand you don’t like Ldm. You’re not the only one. One of my friends with a Maserati thinks he was pompous and acted like an aristocrat having been descended from one (true), political (true), however, did Ferrari thrive under his leadership? Definitely yes.

 

You either love him or hate him. I myself think he's great. I know him from Scuderia Ferrari Club which I have been working on since 2006 and all along the way he was very supportive and just the kind of guy who can get you to exceed your own normal ability. He lived the passion of Ferrari, that's why Enzo picked him.

 

I think he was great as well, and represented Ferrari in the way that Enzo originally intended. His character traits aside, he turned what was a company making shoddy under performing (for the price) sports cars to the highest quality most sought after high performance sports cars in the world. Some people here in these forums were saying that he was just a figurehead, but I disagree completely. He pushed back when Marchionne wanted to raise production to 10,000 cars a year because he understood that the Ferrari brand has to represent exclusivity, and look what happened, he still managed record profits, and yet still got canned. Its a shame as he was the direct link to Enzo.

 

Will it be a conflict of interest given his recent involvement with the Scuderia?

 

Conflict of interest? Like when Jean Todt left to head the FIA? That obviously didn't seem to impact Ferrari all that much....

 

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

 

They were, no doubt, good years. Entirely different dynamic and space apparently though.

 

Oh..geez..i forgot about that. JT is so quiet i kind of forget he exists..

 

Is there anyone else?

 

I would think that LdM would have a rather large conflict of interest in being Bernie's successor. WAAAAAY too many years with Ferrari for him to be completely objective and unbiased when dealing with them in judgment calls.

 

As conflicted of an interest as one team making all the ECU's in the series or what about team members managing drivers careers...? Conflict of interest is the norm in F1.

 

Marchionne would still have the trump card of simply pulling Ferrari out of F1. Game, Set, Match.

 

He wouldn't, couldn't do it. Ferrari's core is racing. It's whole business is around it.

 

The 84 year old Bernie being replaced with some young blood in the form of 67 year old Luca?

Joking aside, they could do a lot worse than him.