Ferrari and the Impact of Unaccountability
“We risk destroying a legend, and I’m truly sorry about that. I hope they at least remove the prancing horse from that car” Luca di Montezemolo, the former head of Ferrari, didn’t mince words when asked what he thought about the Ferrari Luce, their new, and first, EV. Let’s pause for a moment, the former chairman of Ferrari is telling them to remove their own badge from the car.
The car is clearly divisive, but the broader response has divided into two camps. The smaller camp, plays the contrarian role stating that this car isn’t meant for the traditional Ferrari buyer and is instead their attempt at targeting the tech-exec family man that has been waiting for the market to deliver a proper high-end 5-seater. It remains to be seen if these folks are intrigued by an EV (Ferrari at 530km) that offers almost half the WLTP range of the Lucid Air GT (960km), they are typically numbers folks after all. The second, larger camp feels that this vehicle is an abomination, they feel that Ferrari has handed off design duties to Silicon Valley (Jony Ive’s LoveFrom studio penned the design). This is a rebuke of the passionate designs that made Ferrari an icon, an overpriced Toyota Prius. These people feel betrayed by the management, how could Ferrari do this? This outrage is justified, but the target is misplaced, because the brand has always operated from a place of arrogance, free from accountability.
Enzo Ferrari famously claimed, “I sell engines, the cars I throw in for free”. This shows a distinct disdain for design, and really Enzo wasn’t driven by creating road cars, he loved racing and the passenger cars were how he funded his habit. Yet, even Enzo realized he needed help and contracted Pininfarina for design, a partnership that lasted 61 years before Flavio Manzoni brought the designs in house. For me this is when the designs started to lose the plot, but there were issues long before this. Ferrari has been known to play fast and loose, expecting their customers to kiss the ring. For many years their paint jobs have been a mess of overspray, swirl marks and orange peeling. It’s not uncommon for new buyers to send their cars to a specialist for €3k+ of ‘paint correction’ work. Chris Harris famously called out Ferrari for their long held practice of tuning up their press cars with better suspension, hotter motors and a better attention to detail. But when it came time for production, they would deliver a product made with the dexterity of a man returning from a 2-hour lunch, a belly full of pasta and a bottle of wine.
Yet, people would beg to get their space in the little black book of allocations. As an and coming customer you have long been expected to buy ‘lesser’ Ferraris first to show your allegiance. A used F360 here, a Roma there, anything to grease the skids. Other luxury brands do this (Hermes with their Birken bag for instance), but it’s not quite as intense. The Purosangue has been touted as a sales success, but it goes without saying that if you wanted an F80 allocation you had to park the SUV in your garage first. I suspect something similar will happen with the Luce. It’ll sell, but mostly through coercion as another run on the allocation ladder.
So, now we have a €550k five-seater designed by the man who made the iPhone, with amplified powertrain vibrations to simulate Ferrari emotion. While the Luce is a departure in stylistic execution, the actions are the same prancing horse in the same stable we’ve always known. Ferrari has learned it can do whatever it wants and face no consequences. They’ve trained the Tifosi to accept this treatment and the buyers keep showing up. Why change?
Perhaps a better question is why haven’t buyers changed? Why haven’t they held Ferrari more accountable? I think this is more representative of male relationships in our broader society. Ferrari buyers are overwhelmingly male and as men we don’t often hold each accountable. Do we take the piss out of each other? Of course (probably too much). But actually confronting each other about toxic opinions about women or playing the victim while having a lack of initiative? No, that’s too uncomfortable, that’s too real. That one friend makes a sexist joke in the group chat and everyone just ignores it. All banter, no real talk. Rather than saying this isn’t good enough and closing their wallets, men would rather pay the loyalty tax than risk being outside the group. The bro code always erodes.
The outrage is ironic. Your friend has always made derogatory jokes, always defaulted to aggression. You accepted spending €3k in paint correction without complaint, you bought the SUV Ferrari said they’d never build, but now you draw the line? The Luce is not betrayal, you trained Ferrari to build it. Di Montezemolo’s comments could earn him a place at the finest Italian teatro, he oversaw years of sloppy build quality, paint overspray and cheater tires on press cars, but now he’s surprised. Accountability requires discomfort, but it also allows for growth. If anyone can build a great EV it’s Ferrari, but it starts with us. Don’t buy this car, accept a slip in the next allocation, and say something next time the joke isn’t funny.