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Buongiorno Roma! What the beautiful GT means for Ferrari's future

The new Ferrari Roma was seen in the flesh during its unveiling in Rome yesterday, and I can confirm that it is not only one of the most beautiful Ferraris in recent memory, but one of the handsomest of any contemporary sport or luxury car. Its details are predictably rich, well rendered, and pointedly, alluring and accessible. But it is not just the details in a car from the famed Italian sports car manufacturer, and one that is expected to start at around $250,000. "If you now go in the market, and you ask someone who can afford (a Ferrari) — because this is not a cheap product —why don't you buy a Ferrari? They are tempted, but most of them are a bit afraid. 'I don't know if I can drive it, it's very aggressive,'" said Enrico Galliera, the brand's chief marketing officer, in an interview with Autoblog. "And that's one of the major answers. It's not, 'It's too expensive,' or 'I don't want to have fun driving.'" There's a kind of fear of the brand's reputation for aggression and showiness. The Roma is intended to soothe these concerns, and entice new clients into the Ferrari stable. This is accomplished by making everything at once more sophisticated, more mature, and more enticing. On the inside, one is especially drawn to the big, curved and crystalline LCD instrument panel and large center screen, the cozy and coddling leather seats, and the new aviation-inspired metal toggles that act as the transmission selector. Less impressive are the capacitive haptic "buttons" on the steering wheel, but judgment will be reserved on those until we have a chance to experience them while driving, instead of just while sitting on a stage making embarrassing vroom-vroooooommmmmm noises. But it is the outside that really has me drooling. This is not just because the Roma has classical rear-drive GT proportions, with a fiendishly long hood, a selfish not-quite-four-place cabin that the brand describes simply as a "2+," and a truncated Kamm-back tail. It is because the design is so improbably clean, devoid of the strakes, scoops, spoilers, or even ancillary lines that corrupt so many modern cars. Especially evocative is the treatment of the front and rear, both of which are impossibly low, without ever feeling threateningly so. It all feels of a piece, and there's not a bad angle. "We want to transmit this idea of harmony, and a beautiful dynamic in balance," said Ferrari head of design Flavio Manzioni.

A fleet of classic Ferraris were left to rot in a field

A field full of abandoned, old Ferraris is not a common sight. But here are photos of a bunch of them sitting out in the elements. Silodrome originally found and published a story about these lonely looking Ferraris. According to the post, there's a Testarossa, a 308 Quattrovalvole, at least two 328s, at least three 348s and an unestablished number of Mondials. All of them reportedly belonged to one collector, and the story behind why they ended up in the field is rather sad. The owner (name unknown) was an attorney who acquired 13 Ferraris over the course of his successful career. Around 2011 or 2012 he was diagnosed with a serious illness, and he paid to have the cars put into a friend's secure warehouse. Unfortunately, he ended up missing some payments as his condition worsened, and the cars were removed from the warehouse. Their new storage spot? The field you see photographed here. Back payments were eventually made to the warehouse, but the Ferraris were never moved inside. Apparently, the Ferraris would remain in the field for nearly a decade until the family was able to take possession of them. No explanation was provided as to why they were unable to grab them sooner, but the article alludes to "legal proceedings" holding them up. Eleven Ferraris were found in the field, but records (titles, invoices) show that there should have been 13. Additionally, two Rolls-Royces are also unaccounted for. The family reportedly made a deal to sell nine of the Ferraris to a dealer, so they could be restored and sold to new owners. Interior photos of these Ferraris are a bit of a shock. Time sitting in a field hasn't served them well, but at least some folks are going to give them the care a classic Ferrari deserves now. You can check out the rest of the images on Silodrome's article.

F1's Raikkonen to race for Sauber as Leclerc brings youth to Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen will not be going out of Formula One at the top, or even with a top team. The announcement on Tuesday that the 2007 world champion is leaving Ferrari, the sport's oldest, most glamorous and successful team, at the end of the season was only to be expected. Less so was the subsequent revelation that the 38-year-old "Iceman" had agreed a two-year deal to continue with Ferrari-powered Sauber in a swap with that team's Monegasque rookie Charles Leclerc. That will close a circle at least, the Swiss team being the ones who gave Raikkonen his debut in 2001 despite the powers-that-be fearing he was too inexperienced. And it will keep the Finn racing on into his 40s. It will also please Formula One's owners, already facing the retirement of double world champion Fernando Alonso, by keeping one of the best known and most popular drivers on the starting grid. But the days when Raikkonen could hope for poles and wins, already scarce even at Ferrari where Sebastian Vettel is the main contender and team orders have been applied, are surely over now. Sauber was last in 2017 and is ninth of 10 teams now, even if the signs are more encouraging than they were, and there is a likelihood that Raikkonen will now be simply making up the numbers. The Finn will still relish racing with less media attention and more freedom, while for Ferrari there are also clear benefits. For the first time in four years, they now have a new benchmark for four-time champion Vettel and a (very) young driver who represents the future rather than the past. Vettel has outperformed Raikkonen consistently since the pairing started in 2015 with the German's move from Red Bull, and the Finn is already 62 points adrift this season with seven races remaining. Raikkonen has been more competitive this year, taking nine podium finishes and pole at Ferrari's home Italian Grand Prix with Formula One's fastest ever lap, but there are those who question whether Vettel is being pushed hard enough. Some even wonder just how quick the German really is. Ferrari will hope that 20-year-old Leclerc, unless told to adopt a subservient role, can apply a bit more pressure and help answer those questions. The gamble is that the youngster's relative inexperience could impact, in the short-term at least, Ferrari's constructors' championship hopes as he finds his way under considerable scrutiny.