Wheels: Placing Reality on Hold, at Least Temporarily, in a Ferrari FF

Ferrari Rebuke Alonso on His Birthday

"All the great champions who have driven for Ferrari have always been asked to put the interests of the team above their own," the team website (www.ferrari.com) quoted president Luca di Montezemolo as telling the Spaniard in a telephone conversation to wish him a happy 32nd birthday.

"This is the moment to stay calm, avoid polemics and show humility and determination in making one's own contribution, standing alongside the team and its people both at the track and outside it," he added.

Alonso finished fifth at the Hungaroring and slipped to third in the championship, 39 points adrift of Red Bull's triple champion Sebastian Vettel with nine races left.

Asked afterwards what kind of car he wanted for his birthday, the double world champion told Italian reporters: "The one the others have".

Asked also what he planned to do over the August break, with the season now at its midpoint, the Spaniard had retorted: "I will pray".

In a blunt assessment, the Ferrari website said Alonso's comments "did not go down well with Montezemolo, nor with anyone in the team" and said the president had "tweaked" the driver's ear in their conversation.

The polemic came after Alonso's manager was seen entering the Red Bull motorhome in Hungary, triggering paddock speculation that the champions could be considering the Ferrari driver as a possible team mate for Vettel.

Alonso has a contract with Ferrari to the end of 2016 and is the team's undisputed number one driver, with Montezemolo usually unstinting in his praise.

Ferrari had earlier announced a reshuffle in their engineering department with James Allison arriving from Lotus as technical director from September 1.

Pat Fry will assume a new position as director of engineering and both men will report to team principal Stefano Domenicali.

Allison, who worked closely with German driver Michael Schumacher in a previous stint with Ferrari, left his last job as Lotus technical director in May.

Ferrari said Allison's arrival was proof of Montezemolo's determination to ensure the team had all the support and resources it needed.

"There is a need to close ranks, without giving in to rash outbursts that, while understandable in the immediate aftermath of a bad result, are no use to anyone," the website said.

It added that the president had made his displeasure with the team's current performance clear.

"Montezemolo did not mince his words when it came to asking the team to step up a gear," the website declared.

"Each one of the engineers present received a 'gift' of a knife, along with an invitation - metaphorical up to a point - to put it between their teeth when thinking how to tackle the second half of the season."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin and Ed Osmond; Editing by Justin Palmer and John Mehaffey)

Wheels Blog: Wheelies: The Fabled Ferrari Edition

Newspress USA Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari S.p.A., announces the opening of an expanded Museo Ferrari in Maranello, Italy.

In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:

• Ferrari is immortalizing more of its storied cars in an 11,000-square-foot expansion of the Museo Ferrari in Maranello, Italy, Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari, announced on Wednesday. Among the permanent displays will be single seat racecars from throughout the company’s history. A temporary exhibit, “From Cinecittà to Hollywood, All Ferraris in the Cinema,” will feature Steve McQueen’s 275 GTB4, the Mondial T Cabrio that Al Pacino drove in “Scent of a Woman” and the 330 LM-inspired one-off that appeared in Federico Fellini’s “Spirits of the Dead.” (Museo Ferrari)

• For the first time since I. J. Cooper created the Cooper Corporation in Findlay, Ohio, in 1919, the company is leaving American ownership. Apollo Tyres, an Indian company, just paid $2.5 billion in cash to take over the tire manufacturer. Crain News Service reports that Apollo’s acquisition creates a company with about $6.6 billion in sales annually and puts it at the helm of 12 factories spread across India, the United States, China, Mexico, the Netherlands, England, Serbia and South Africa. (Automotive News)

• Spyker’s lawsuit against General Motors for blocking the sale of Saab to a Chinese-backed investor was thrown out by a federal judge. Spyker, the Dutch sportscar manufacturer that had bought Saab from G.M. for $400 million in January 2010, had accused G.M. of intentionally bankrupting Saab to keep it from generating competition in the lucrative Chinese market. Saab went bankrupt in December 2011, but a federal judge determined that G.M. was well within its rights to block the sale of Saab. G.M. said it was satisfied with the court’s finding, and Spyker has not indicated if it will appeal the decision. (Reuters)

Fiat Fiat’s Gucci edition 500 will feature fancy leather, chrome accents and, like the last one, a limited run.

• If you want a Gucci-inspired hatchback, now’s your chance. Fiat just announced that it will be offering a Gucci edition Fiat 500, starting at $23,750. The cloth-top 500C will start at $27,750, almost $10,000 more than the 500 Lounge hardtop. As a matter of fact, the fancy trim puts it in the same price range as the more powerful Turbo and Abarth models. But despite its fashion-over-function spirit, which includes fancy leather, chrome accents and Gucci badging, the last Gucci 500 to be offered sold briskly. (Autoblog)

• Competing against all-electric vehicles including the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt and Tesla Model S, the Ford Focus Electric has languished. Ford announced that it would not update the car for the 2014 model year, which has left analysts thinking that Ford may have given up on the car. Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at Edmunds.com, told The Detroit News that Ford’s heart does not seem to be in the Focus Electric, and that it might be offered just to aid the company’s overall fuel economy numbers and image. (The Detroit News)

• The electric carmaker Coda has gotten the green light from a bankruptcy court to sell its assets to lenders for $25 million. Fortress Investment Group agreed to a cash payment of $1.7 million, with the rest coming from a credit bid allowing lenders to use debt owed to them in lieu of cash. Although Coda announced in May that it was stepping away from the car game, the company said it would be developing and selling energy storage technology through a subsidiary. (The New York Times)

Ferrari, ou l'exception automobile

Le pr?sident de Ferrari, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, a annonc? mercredi 8 mai qu'il comptait r?duire sa production. La raison officielle ? "Pr?server le concept d'exclusivit? et donc la valeur de nos mod?les et de la marque". A Maranello, l'usine historique de la marque qui a vendu 7318 voitures en 2012, il a pr?cis? vouloir limiter la production ? moins de 7 000 exemplaires cette ann?e.

Pendant que les constructeurs automobiles, y compris dans le haut de gamme, s'?chinent ? miser davantage sur les mod?les qui marchent le mieux, la c?l?bre maison italienne jouerait-elle les snobs ? O? s'agit-il d'un habile artifice de communication pour masquer des perspectives de ventes d?cevantes ? On ne peut rien exclure.

Mais la marque au cheval cabr? a toujours appr?ci? cette strat?gie malthusienne. D?j? en 2003, il avait ?t? d?cid? de freiner globalement l'usine. Et aujourd'hui, les indicateurs de vente des voitures de sport rouges sont au beau fixe. Ferrari vient de clore la meilleure ann?e de son histoire en soixante-dix ans d'existence avec un chiffre d'affaires de 2,43 milliards d'euros (+8 %) et un b?n?fice net de 244 millions (+18 %). La filiale de Fiat g?n?re plus du quart des profits du groupe en repr?sentant moins de 1% de sa production automobile. Les carnets de commandes sont pleins.

Au salon de Gen?ve le 5 mars, la nouveaut?, baptis?e LaFerrari, a fait un tabac. Cette voiture hybride de 963 chevaux est vendue 1 million d'euros pi?ce, avec, c'est la moindre des choses, le si?ge du conducteur fabriqu? sur mesure en fonction de la morphologie du propri?taire. Le constructeur italien avait annonc? qu'elle ne serait produite qu'? 499 exemplaires, mais affichait plus de 700 commandes ? l'issue du salon.

C'est pourquoi Di Montezemolo assure que la baisse du nombre de voiture produite cette ann?e ne remet pas en cause ses pr?visions de hausse des b?n?fices. Cette raret? entretenue permet de maintenir les prix les plus ?lev?s du march?, et de g?n?rer des revenus compl?mentaires. Ferrari est la seule marque automobile ? tirer plus de 100millions d'euros par an de licences pour des produits de luxe.

Pour Fiat, la relative retenue de sa marque embl?matique, peut faire de la place ? Maserati, un peu en dessous dans l'?chelle du luxe. L'italien a investi dans une nouvelle usine d'assemblage de moteurs qui devrait permettre de monter les ventes de Maserati ? 15 000 unit?s en 2015. Les frustr?s de Ferrari pourraient y trouver une consolation.

jacquin@lemonde.fr

Ferrari, ou l'exception automobile

Le pr?sident de Ferrari, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, a annonc? mercredi 8 mai qu'il comptait r?duire sa production. La raison officielle ? "Pr?server le concept d'exclusivit? et donc la valeur de nos mod?les et de la marque". A Maranello, l'usine historique de la marque qui a vendu 7318 voitures en 2012, il a pr?cis? vouloir limiter la production ? moins de 7 000 exemplaires cette ann?e.

Pendant que les constructeurs automobiles, y compris dans le haut de gamme, s'?chinent ? miser davantage sur les mod?les qui marchent le mieux, la c?l?bre maison italienne jouerait-elle les snobs ? O? s'agit-il d'un habile artifice de communication pour masquer des perspectives de ventes d?cevantes ? On ne peut rien exclure.

Mais la marque au cheval cabr? a toujours appr?ci? cette strat?gie malthusienne. D?j? en 2003, il avait ?t? d?cid? de freiner globalement l'usine. Et aujourd'hui, les indicateurs de vente des voitures de sport rouges sont au beau fixe. Ferrari vient de clore la meilleure ann?e de son histoire en soixante-dix ans d'existence avec un chiffre d'affaires de 2,43 milliards d'euros (+8 %) et un b?n?fice net de 244 millions (+18 %). La filiale de Fiat g?n?re plus du quart des profits du groupe en repr?sentant moins de 1% de sa production automobile. Les carnets de commandes sont pleins.

Au salon de Gen?ve le 5 mars, la nouveaut?, baptis?e LaFerrari, a fait un tabac. Cette voiture hybride de 963 chevaux est vendue 1 million d'euros pi?ce, avec, c'est la moindre des choses, le si?ge du conducteur fabriqu? sur mesure en fonction de la morphologie du propri?taire. Le constructeur italien avait annonc? qu'elle ne serait produite qu'? 499 exemplaires, mais affichait plus de 700 commandes ? l'issue du salon.

C'est pourquoi Di Montezemolo assure que la baisse du nombre de voiture produite cette ann?e ne remet pas en cause ses pr?visions de hausse des b?n?fices. Cette raret? entretenue permet de maintenir les prix les plus ?lev?s du march?, et de g?n?rer des revenus compl?mentaires. Ferrari est la seule marque automobile ? tirer plus de 100millions d'euros par an de licences pour des produits de luxe.

Pour Fiat, la relative retenue de sa marque embl?matique, peut faire de la place ? Maserati, un peu en dessous dans l'?chelle du luxe. L'italien a investi dans une nouvelle usine d'assemblage de moteurs qui devrait permettre de monter les ventes de Maserati ? 15 000 unit?s en 2015. Les frustr?s de Ferrari pourraient y trouver une consolation.

jacquin@lemonde.fr