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Ferrari CEO could retire Friday letting Marchionne step in

Rumors once again suggest that current Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa plans to retire from the role. Anonymous insiders tell Bloomberg that the announcement could come as soon as April 15, with an announcement at the company's upcoming investors meeting. Sergio Marchionne is the favorite to become the new CEO, the unnamed sources claim. Felisa would step down as CEO after Ferrari nominates its new board of directors, according to Bloomberg. He would likely retain a seat on the board and could still do some work at the company. Felisa joined the sports car maker in 1990 as director of product development. He replaced Jean Todt as CEO in 2008. Marchionne is already Ferrari's chairman, and taking on the CEO role in addition would give him greater control over the brand's future. Bloomberg's insiders note that Marchionne's takeover isn't final yet, and someone else could conceivably get the role. The sweater-wearing exec has a clear view for Ferrari's future, though. He plans to increase volume to around 10,000 vehicles a year, but he's staunchly against building an SUV or an EV. If he takes control, expect him to work out a plan to increase the Prancing Horse's share price. At its October IPO, the stock started at $52 a share; today it opened at $41.24. Rumors about this shift have been swirling for months. For example, reports from Italian media in June 2015 suggested Felisa would retire as CEO. Subsequent rumors claimed Marchionne was the frontrunner to take over the position. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider tops Gooding's Saturday auction at $15.18 million

During the weekend's automotive smorgasbord in Pebble Beach, Ferrari has played a huge roll. Twenty examples of the ultra-rare 250 TR, better known as the Testa Rossa, were prominently on display at the Concours d'Elegance, and the Prancing Horses have been top sellers at many of the auctions. You can chalk up one more on that list with a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider with a scarce, optional hardtop included going for $15.18 million at Gooding & Company's sale on Saturday night. Ferris Bueller would find it so choice.
In all, the auction house brought in about $60.4 million during the night, and 17 of the cars on the block sold for over $1 million. None of the other cars on Saturday managed quite the stratospheric highs of the California, though. A 1955 Aston Martin DB3S was the second-highest seller at $5.5 million. The next four top vehicles were all Ferraris with final prices ranging between $2.09 million and $2.365 million. Clearly, investors are in love with the Prancing Horse these days.
Check out our gallery, and scroll down to read the auction house's announcement of its top Saturday results.

The pre-race and first in-race report from Le Mans

The 2013, 90th anniversary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has begun, tragedy marking the opening laps with the death of Allan Simonsen. We're at the track now as a guest of Audi and plan to stay through the evening, and even we haven't been able to find out what caused the accident - the only video is from just after the incident, and beyond the statement from ACO there's been no more news. The Aston Martin in the LM GTE Am class and its all-Danish drivers had taken pole in its class and was one of the favorites to win.
The pre-race report will come first, and even thought we can't spoil the race because we're only five hours into it at the time of writing, we'll put all of the news at the end in case you don't even want the updates.
Or you can go straight to the high-res galleries above.