Now that he’s in charge of Ferrari, Sergio Marchionne has been rumored to be planning several changes that would take the brand into the future. We even heard he may be inclined to ignore the exclusivity-preserving production cap put in place by Luca de Montezemolo, and just build more cars.
Present at de Montezemolo’s farewell press conference (see video below, all in Italian), Marchionne explained what his intentions were. He explained that it is paramount to preserve the unique character of the brand, and that he was not “trying to turn Ferrari into Lamborghini.” That’s because “even if we tried desperately, I don’t think we could,” he exclaimed.
He made it clear that he was not going to significantly veer of the course set by his predecessor, but that if the market conditions improved to such an extent, he would look into boosting production – i.e. if the number of well-off folks in the world would increase significantly enough so that people would keep their cars and not flood the second hand market.
It became apparent that he was also very keen on the racing side of things. Formula 1, which they haven’t they haven’t won in six years, is a bit of a sore subject. Marchionne did not say he wanted to pull out by any means, but that he was willing to take risks in the hopes of better results.
Finally, the matter of ultra-exclusive models, such as the recently unveiled F60 America came into focus. In regards to it, Marchionne’s words were “I’m not saying we should make 20, but I think we should make the product available. And it becomes a point where exclusivity goes too far. It’s no longer reachable. We’re in business to sell cars to people. We’ve got to make product available. There is not an absolute restriction.” What it means exactly we can’t really tell yet…
Via Autocar