Luca leave Ferrari because of turbo?

Most manufacturers will adopt turbos in future, because it's a solution to the increasingly tightening of emission control regulations. Ferrari is just one of many constructors who is forced to switch from atmospheric to turbo.

 

No, and he didn't leave, he was forced out. Felisa next to go

 

Different views on brand monetisation most likely.

 

Pretty sure it wasn't much about engineering with Luca

 

Ferrari is moving to one shared platform, kinda like Vw does with the MQB. Wouldnt be surprised if the FF and cali share a lot going forwards.

Its certainly a sign of the cars becoming less "special". Lets hope the driving and styling stays or improves.

Ironicaly Turbo engines dont really save gas or emit elss C02. They do on a test cycle where the turbo is barely in use. Out on the road they really dont save gas, but they do add lots of HP, and in these paper spec times paper numbers sell cars.

Too bad they didnt try to reduce weight instead.

 

Luca wanted to protect the company and brand that he brought back from the brink. The cardigan wanted to exploit it for all its worth so that it can prop up other faltering parts of the business he runs.

Ergo, Luca out.

 

Di Montezemolo was one of the, if not the last aristocratic CEO's out there. He was the last of the "old Ferrari way of doing things. I think as he aged he saw himself as the true successor to Mr. Ferrari. and in doing that he recconed that he could do as he wanted in the FIAT world as an Ex Chariman of FIAT. Marchionne wanted to exploit the cash pent up in Ferrari by expanding volume and selling shares ... all of which Di Montezemolo did not want to do, he'd rather bring in super wealthy investors - Mubudala etc... for cash.

Marchionne pushed Di Montezemolo out - hard. Sadly Piero Ferrari let that happen. Italian on Italian crime is hard to watch.

Ferrari History is now divided into 3 sections:

Enzo Ferrari pre and post Fiat era. di Montezemolo era, and Marchionne era. The interest and value of the cars is akin to sliding down a Mountain... with Enzo at the peak.

 

This as I understand it. He didn't want to have an "American" cashout of the company.

Same old story again and again. Founder builds company from nothing. His progeny maintain his ideals, way of doing business and company grows. Its reputation is largely intact.

Slick "manager" who never met the founder comes in and exploits the company for massive cash in the short term. Ultimately killing it by undermining what made it great in the first place. "But if we cut corners and focus on the profits.. we can make ton of money! It's OK.. we can bank on the company name/reputation."

 

Well, I agree with Tom (= "Spirot"), mostly...
BUT even if I admire what Luca has done, he made one mistake. As Bernie Ecclestone said: "the more I met Luca, the more I forget who he is, I only see Ferrari": Luca became some sort of incarnation of Ferrari itself, perhaps some even saw him as a true successor to the Old Man.
But there was one slight difference: neither did the company bear his name, nor did he have 40% of the shares...

And so out he went, without even a public "thank you" for the work he has done. I know he received a large check of about 30 million € in compensation, but the work he did for the company should have been publicly aknowledged, if you ask me...he deserved one.

Rgds

 

Exactly this.

 

Di Montezemolo did a good job of getting the company in better financial straights and improving reliability and driveability of the cars.

However, IMO, he moved the company too far towards a very expensive LUXURY sports car that anyone could drive. I would have preferred he left that to Maserati and kept Ferrari more hardcore with a lower price point.

 

Thats every luxury good out there. The growth is where the margins are higher.

You guys are right though- it was all about how to monetize Ferrari itself.

LDM was happy to keep Fiat as the sugar daddy and run his own kingdom at Ferrari.

SM wants Ferrari to be one of his main cash cows. So basically selling 7-10k cars a year is going to partly underwrite the selling of how many millions does FCA sell? Seems a bit lopsided to me.

I think this decision forced their hands to go turbo on all the motors. I'm sure they were leaning toward the turbo V8 as an answer to the HP wars and as well as a way to appease the tightening regulations. But they were saying the V12 would get a hybrid version that could help with the regulations. They stopped saying this right around the time it became clear that LDM was on his way out. Now its becoming clear that ALL motors will go turbo except the supercars.

And FCA gets $1bn cash it needs while it retains the other 80% of the shares. SM says he will retire in a few years, so I suspect Ferrari and FCA will be doing just fine for the next few years but what happens after that? You've now subjected Ferrari to a vastly different way of operating. A few years time is about right to see how it copes with changes. But that likely won't be SM's problem...

The poor recent F1 record was just the cover SM needed. And he is right that Ferrari should not tolerate losing seasons in F1. I'm sure this bothered LDM.

Although there were a few things that came along with LDM's leadership at Ferrari that displeased me as a customer, those are tiny compared to the positive impact I think he had for Ferrari. I have no doubt Ferrari would not be nearly as strong as it is without him. I think he is missed.

I agree he should have gotten a better send off by Ferrari but I know they did something for him internally and he did get (to my eyes what amounts to) a good compensation. And those of us who follow this know his contributions to Ferrari as a leader are second only to Enzo.

As to Pierro Ferrari, I don't have any idea except it seems his net worth has increased by more than 4x. That's very hard to resist and could easily not be the only motivation but its the one that sticks out to my eyes. I can't blame him for that. Besides, it seems he has 10% of the control not all the control.