Ferrari’s former chief engineer Roberto Fedeli has been hired by BMW in a move that comes shortly after Luca di Montezemolo announced his resignation as Ferrari president.
We don’t know whether the two events are somehow related, but we’ll probably find out in the future. What’s certain is that Ferrari has lost a very valuable engineer, whose expertise will be used by BMW to consolidate its technical department.
Roberto Fedeli had been working at Ferrari since 1988 and has been head technician on Ferrari models since 2007. He will join BMW in November, according to a BMW spokesman, who did not provide details about Fedeli’s role at BMW. Fedeli has left Ferrari on September 13, three days after di Montezemolo said he will quit. However, a Ferrari spokesman said the two departures are unrelated.
Ferrari’s president announced his resignation on September 10, but will effectively leave Ferrari on October 12 in the wake of strategy disagreements with Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the parent company of Ferrari.
Fedeli is an expert in lightweight construction materials, having overseen Ferrari’s aluminum and composite cars. He’s also an authority in hybrid powertrains and in supercars in general, having approved the LaFerrari hybrid hypercar and virtually every Ferrari road car since 2007. All these qualities obviously make him very valuable for BMW. The Italian is expected to use his expertise for the group’s BMW M division or Rolls-Royce.
Fedeli will be replaced at Ferrari by chief technological officer Michael Leiters, who joined Maranello from Porsche in January 2014.
Story references: Autonews Europe
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