Luca di Montezemolo goes to......

McLaren must be desperate to sell cars if they had to call old Luca. And if they did It to boost their corporate image, I don't see the benefits of trying to imitate your rival of TEN YEARS ago.

 

I think you can read it either of those ways or simply that he’s been away from the game for about a decade, so certainly not bad form to go to another company, and he deserves to have another chapter. My guess is this will be more of an advisory role than he had at Ferrari, but what if he can help McLaren navigate some things with F1 and give some advice and input to their sports cars that just helps nudge them into a little more competitive place. The ultimate irony would be if there was a way for them to go to naturally aspirated combustion engines and ditch the turbos and hybrids. Im not sure about the regulations, but, whereas Ferrari has gone the power route on steroids, what if McLaren just said we already have a fairly light car, so power, after a certain point, doesnt matter very much for a street car. I doubt that will happen, but it woould be quite ironic.

 

I take It as a new challenge for him.

 

He is not the new CEO, he is just a member of the board of directors, together with 8 other people. Furthermore, in Italy he is not considered a hero because many still remember his failures (Alitalia, his disastrous attempt to enter politics with Italia Futura).

 

Luca is, for better or worse, a marketing genius. If he fits in it and only help McLaren.

 

I don't know. It seems to me that Mclaren under the new Ceo is directed towards a luxury ev market, the collaboration with Nio and the management of Forseven do not give me much hope. I don't think Montezemolo can do much about it.

 

Sorry, i don

It was not my intention to argue about his many merits but i remember well what happened at that time and i can assure you that it was not only about Alitalia. After leaving Ferrari there was also the terrible management of Unicredit, the failed attempt to take possession of the railways, the failed management of the fund with Della Valle and other financial adventures that cost the Italian state dearly. Montezemolo was a great Ferrari manager, but he made many mistakes in the past. His presence is not a certainty of success, and he will be remembered for all he done, both the good things and the bad things.

 

Folks at that level serve on many boards. This one just happens to be a car company. He didn't change jobs.

 

I read it like this too. Mclaren wants to challenge Ferrari, but their cars are not reliable enough for customers to return, the image too tainted. But they smell the weakness in Ferrari now the hubris is at an all time high in Italy. Mclaren is preparing to pick up the slack when Italy falls. To me it feels like this could be a turning point. I was at a Mclaren dealer a few weeks ago, and i felt a shift in mentality. LDM at Mclaren confirms my own observations. Still early days of course, but the future could be papaya ...

 

Not to mention the miserable failure of Maserati when Ferrari was in charge of it - eventually Maserati went back to direct FIAT control, while Ferrari elected to leverage its brand to expand volumes instead of keeping its focussed and limited production (Maserati could have provided the increased production without diluting Ferrari's brand if managed properly).
LdM was also the one developing the crap Ferrari merchandising, for which he recruited Danny Bahar (who would be incredibly successful with Lotus afterwards )

 

The Luca adulation by Chris Harris and friends regarding his overseeing road cars and customers care Is disingenuous
to say the least,
During his tenure he was ultimately responsible for to catastrophic engineering failures, 458, 488, F12, FF, Lusso all suffer
from gearbox failures, FF, GT4 Lusso all suffer PTU failures.

 

Well, those sound like Getrag and Magna specific "failures" more than Ferrari, as many companies use the same DCT boxes. Running 560-830hp through relatively tiny driveshafts with rubber gaskets is inherently high wear. I've thought about this a lot, and there just are not many alternatives out there unless they went to a ZF unit like the Astons and Mercedes V12TT use - which shift a good 0.5 seconds slower. The slower 1st-2nd shift is what Aston loses every time.

They could probably do a manual like Pagani, Koenigsegg or GMA offer but it would not jive for the general buyers who, with 800+hp, would likely fry clutches by the dozen.

 

If there in a Ferrari there Ferrari’s issue, and please most drive there cars way under there designed tolerance targets.

 

Never liked Luca. Like him less now. The fawning over he gets on the Chris Harris podcast makes me nauseous.

 

Luca di Montezemolo is why Ferrari is still around today. We all owe him.
He fought t the corporate suits and their BS for as long as he could.

 

Better in what sense? For shareholders, sure. For the enthusiast? I would say no.

Also he **** (unfairly) on the 348 and so I will never like him.

 

Pre-Luca Ferrari made cars for enthusiasts. After Luca, Ferrari made cars people that wanted to say they owned a Ferrari.

 

The cars Luca made were great up to the FF, which is a terrible car and everything after.

 

Luca turned Ferrari into a company mass-producing status symbols. We’re most good, sure. But I say again: it went from an enthusiast auto maker to a “brand”

it’s like going from Jefferson Airplane to Jefferson Starship.