Ferrari Boss di Montezemolo Looks Back on 20 Years with Company

In an interview over lunch with US automotive magazine Motortrend, Ferrari CEO Luca di Montezemolo looked back on his tenure at Ferrari and agreed that the Ferrari 348 was one of the worst cars the company ever made. 

Di Montezemolo rejoined Ferrari as CEO in 1991. Previously, di Montezemolo had run the Ferrari Formula 1 team between 1973 and 1977. One of the first things that he did after taking over the company was prioritize improvements to the 348 to create the Ferrari 355. 

In regards to the 348, Montezemolo recounted an anecdote of losing a stop light drag race against a Volkswagen GTI while driving a 348. 

“Ferrari was not in bad condition, but after Enzo died, it lost the ability to innovate and look ahead.,” said di Montezemolo.

Di Montezemolo transformed the company from a bunch of workshops to a campus of factories that produce over 7,000 vehicles per year. Ferrari has been rated at the best employer in Europe by the Financial Times in London. Workers children get free schoolbooks; families get free medical checkups, free child care, and a special home mortgage rate. Ferrari was not mandated to make these changes; they were decided by di Montezemolo.

Ferrari's profits have gone from €230 million in 1993 to over €2 billion now with an operating profit of €300 million.

“I tell my people we don’t sell a car; we sell a dream, but there are three things that define a Ferrari: the emotion of driving, extreme performance, and beauty of design. There will always be at least 7000 people in the world who will want to buy this,” said di Montezemolo

Source Motortrend