Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo will leave the company next month amid a very disappointing season by the flagship Formula One team
Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president who transformed the famous Italian brand into the premier luxury car maker in the world, returning the Formula One team to the top in the process, has stood down after 23 years at the helm.
In news widely expected after a very public rebuke from the boss of the parent company, Fiat, after a dismal performance from the Scuderia in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, di Montezemolo confirmed he would leave in October.
The 67-year-old had claimed just last week in Monza he intended to serve another three years and would decide on the date his departure, but sources close to the situation said then that “the story was over”. Di Montezemolo made the announcment just a day before Ferrari were preparing to announce record profits, but the F1 team has fallen on hard times.
It is thought he will move on to take over as boss of the Alitalia airline. He said the decision was triggered by flotation plans for the new Fiat Chrysler Automobiles company, planned for the New York Stock Exchange next month.
Di Montezemolo, the son of an aristocratic family from the Piedmont region of Italy, said: “This is the end of an era and so I have decided to leave my position as Chairman after almost 23 marvellous and unforgettable years in addition to those spent at Enzo Ferrari’s side in the 1970s.
“My thanks, first and foremost, to the exceptional Ferrari women and men from the factory, the offices, the race tracks and the markets across the world. They were the real architects of the company’s spectacular growth, its many unforgettable victories and its transformation into one of the world’s strongest brands.
“A warm farewell and my thanks also to all of our technical and commercial partners, our dealers across the globe and, most particularly, the clients and collectors whose passion I so wholeheartedly share.
“But my thoughts go also to our fans who have always supported us with great enthusiasm especially through the Scuderia’s most difficult moments.”
Di Montezemolo has been one of Formula One’s great characters and powerbrokers for decades. In 1973, he became assistant to founder Enzo Ferrari, before managing the team from 1974. He won two championships with Niki Lauda, and went on to hold a number of different roles in Fiat in the 1980s. He then became manager of the organising committee for the 1990 World Cup, before returning to Ferrari as president in 1991.
Di Montezemolo, with Jean Todt as team principal, returned Ferrari to winning ways with Michael Schumacher, taking their first drivers’ championship for 21 years in 2000. Ferrari dominated the sport for much of the decade.
Politically, he was also an enormous force. In 2008, he founded the teams association, which was used largely as a vehicle to undermine then FIA president Max Mosley. Di Montezemolo also exuded charisma, with his regular entrance to the Monza paddock on Saturday afternoons attracting massive attention.
However, a series of poor results for the Formula One team in recent years left di Montezemolo under increasing pressure. Ferrari have not won a championship since Kimi Raikkonen’s in 2007, and have had to watch a number of opportunities for Fernando Alonso slip through their fingers at the final race in 2010, and 2012.
Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat boss who publicly criticised di Montezemolo after the race at Monza, where Ferrari scored just two points, is expected to take over for now.
The outgoing president added: “Ferrari is the most wonderful company in the world. It has been a great privilege and honour to have been its leader. I devoted all of my enthusiasm and commitment to it over the years. Together with my family, it was, and continues to be, the most important thing in my life.”
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