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Former Ferrari F1 chief could be new Lamborghini CEO

The word on the street in Bologna is that Lamborghini is in for a changing of the guard. Current CEO Stephan Winkelmann is tipped to step down after 14 years at the helm in Sant'Agata, likely to move to another role at Audi. And in his place, the German automaker is anticipated to appoint Stefano Domenicali. Domenicali was formerly the head of Scuderia Ferrari, rising through the ranks at Maranello to succeed Jean Todt as team principal in 2008. He resigned in 2014 to be replaced first by Ferrari US chief Marco Mattiacci and then by Marlboro man Maurizio Arrivabene as the team has struggled to find its form again. Shortly after leaving Maranello, Domenicali took up a new position at Audi, where he was rumored to be working on the company's anticipated foray into Formula One with Red Bull. But after that program was shut down in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal, Domenicali is now tipped to move back to Italy to take over the supercar business. Stefano would be the second Domenicali to head an Italian performance brand under the VW/Audi umbrella, joining Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali (they not believed to be related). The move would also be a particularly emphatic gesture to Sergio Marchionne. The Fiat Chrysler Automobiles chief has previously lost top lieutenants to Volkswagen, most notably Luca de Meo, who headed up VW brand's passenger car marketing department before taking over at Seat. While previous Ferrari chiefs Todt and Montezemolo came up through the racing department, Marchionne assumed the chairmanship in Maranello and brought in outside talent instead. Meanwhile Winkelmann has been in charge of Lamborghini since 2005, when he was appointed by Audi to run the company it had just acquired a few years prior. Under the tenure of the German-Italian executive, Lamborghini sales have risen from 1,600 units per year to over 2,500 last year. The introduction of the forthcoming Urus crossover, birthed under Winkelmann's leadership, is expected to more than double that overall figure. Given his success in transforming Lamborghini, it isn't likely that the Volkswagen Group will simply show Winkelmann the door. Word has it that he'll receive another posting at Audi, potentially taking over the growing Quattro GmbH division in Neckarsulm. The division is responsible for all of Audi's RS models as well as the R8 – the latter of which Audi sells as many units as the entire Lamborghini division does in a year.

Coming to America | 2018 Audi RS3 Sedan First Drive

Audi's Quattro division never let us have the giant-killing, all-wheel-drive RS3. Too sophisticated for the US, they said. Too European. And we only make it as a Sportback (that's hatchback to you). You wouldn't like it. You're more SUV kind of people. Others, those in Quattro's special we-like-you countries, bought the RS3 and constantly raved about it, insisting its handling made the Mercedes-AMG A45 look ponderous (because, well, it is), its packaging was terrific, and the noise, they said. The noise. Over and over, the noise. But ex-Lamborghini president Stephan Winkelmann is now the boss and he's brought with him a worldview that Quattro GmbH never had. And despite being busy changing the letterhead to Audi Sport, Winkelmann found time to think about America. And he must like us because he's moved us to the top of the list. Not only will we get the face-lifted RS3, with its new, lightweight five-cylinder turbo motor crunching out 332 pound-feet of torque and 400 horsepower, we'll get it in a crisply styled three-box sedan. And we'll get it first, before even Germany (where it's built). The RS3's 2.5-liter five-cylinder has enough power to hurl it to 62 mph in 4.1 seconds and, thanks to launch control, the ability to do so repeatably. It's coming with a 155-mph top speed that can be raised to 174. It's coming with limpet grip from a rear-biased all-wheel-drive system. It's coming with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission (and don't ask for a stick shift, because they haven't bothered to engineer one). It's coming standard (for the US) with constantly variable magnetic ride dampers, which replace the base fixed-rate steel spring-and-damper setup. But more than anything else, the RS3 sedan is coming here with that engine. It starts with a sharp braaap as it spins to around 4000 rpm and then a pop and bang that will wake the neighbors. And that's in the quieter default mode. It's like an angry man who always wakes up looking for a fight and, finding he can't get one, barks out the last word anyway. Except it never really goes quiet. It goes less loud, but not quiet. Quiet is not in the repertoire. The engine is what dominates this car and the noise dominates the engine. It's always there, always threatening, menacing, bellowing, barking, or popping and burbling. With a 1-2-4-5-3 firing order, the turbo five is a unique combination of belligerent and sophisticated, raucous and operatic, brutal and smooth, and often all of them at the same time.

We demo Audi's Traffic Jam Assistant tech on the road [w/video]

The closer automotive technology comes to making good on the promise of fully driverless vehicles, the better we see just what difficult work reaching that ultimate goal will become. That's because, unlike so many other in-car technologies that need only integration into a vehicle, truly autonomous cars will also insist on involvement with the surrounding environment, fellow motorists, infrastructure in cities and other communities and making it all work without exposing automakers to law-breaking or tremendous possible litigation. Clearly that isn't all about to happen in one go.
At CES in 2012, Audi told us about a debuting technology that would mark a significant step along the path towards self-driving cars: Traffic Jam Assistant. This year, the German automaker invited us out to Las Vegas to see the jam-busting technology in action, on a relatively busy freeway.
The Traffic Jam Assistant (we're pretty sure that name is still in Beta) promises to relieve drivers from the tedium of slow-moving freeways by taking care of braking, acceleration and staying inside of the lane - all with no input from the human behind the wheel. While still a fair step from truly autonomous driving, the goal here is to give a commuter some respite from the mechanical, time-wasting traffic jam paradigm, potentially opening up a space for productivity in the process. (Audi can't come right out and say that TJA will allow you to use your cell phone in traffic, as that's still against the law in many places, but something like that is clearly on the radar... er... LiDAR.)