Ferrari to stick with F1 as CEO says racing drives innovation

MILAN: Ferrari NV isn’t giving up on auto racing. Even after another disappointing season on the Formula 1 circuit, the supercar maker says it will continue to pour resources into the sport.

“A lot of technologies can go from the track to the road,” chief executive officer Benedetto Vigna said Monday in an interview at Bloomberg’s Italy Capital Markets Forum. That will drive the Maranello, Italy-based producer to continue investing in racing, he said.

Ferrari, which hasn’t won the Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship since 2008, is running fourth among manufacturers in the 2023 rankings after a tepid result in last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Overall, the company team has won 15 drivers’ championships and sixteen Constructors’ titles, making it the series’ most successful franchise.

The carmaker has been synonymous with competition since it was founded in 1939 — “RACE” is its stock ticker — and racing “has been and will be in the DNA of our company,” Vigna said.

Results aside, the CEO said competition provides a learning experience for the carmaker. “There is a way to improve, there is a way to learn. We have to make a car that is better always than the past one.”

Despite its struggles on the track, Ferrari has been lapping the competition on the stock market as demand for luxury cars has held up while mass producers lose pricing power. Ferrari’s market value has now surpassed that of Stellantis NV — the conglomerate that includes its one-time parent Fiat.