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Former Ferrari world champion and motorcycle ace John Surtees dies

"The main thing is that whatever I've done, I've done from the heart." – John Surtees John Surtees, the motorsports legend who's the only man to win world championships in motorcycle and Formula One competition, died Friday, March 10. He was 83 years old. Surtees' greatest fame in F1 came in 1964 when he won two races and finished second three times to capture the drivers championship and propel Ferrari to the constructors title. Dubbed "il Grande John" by the Scuderia fans, he returned Ferrari to the top of the motorsports world, but he infamously left the team after a falling-out with management in 1966. Surtees also raced in F1 for Honda, Lotus, Cooper, and others. He survived a crash during practice in 1965 while driving a Lola sports car, which broke his pelvis, ruptured his kidneys, and damaged his spine and left leg. He oversaw his own racing operation in the 1970s, and his cars competed in F1, Formula 2 and F5000. Surtees also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 1960s and won the 1966 Can-Am title for Lola. One of the few drivers who was equally talented on a motorcycle, Surtees counted seven titles on two wheels, dominating the circuit in the 1950s for Norton and the MV Agusta. In a biography on his website, Surtees said he relished the competition above all else. "The main thing is that whatever I've done, I've done from the heart. I have loved being involved in first building and riding motorcycles and then driving cars – but above all, competing." Surtees was born in England in 1934. His father was a motorcycle racer and his son, Henry, competed in Formula 2. Henry was killed during a crash in 2009 at Brands Hatch in England. John Surtees' death immediately drew reaction from around the motorsports world, including Ferrari, MotoGP, and F1. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Related Video: Motorsports Ferrari Honda john surtees

Marchionne takes total control of Ferrari as CEO and chairman

Ferrari is undergoing another changing of the guard as Amedeo Felisa retires from his longtime role as CEO. In his place, Sergio Marchionne will add the job to his absurd list of responsibilities. An engineer by training, Felisa has been with the company for 26 years, and some form of Fiat for nearly 50, having come to Maranello in 1990 after two decades at Alfa Romeo. He took charge of Ferrari's road-car division in 2001, was named general manager in 2006, and got the CEO job in 2008 after Jean Todt left to run for president of the FIA. Felisa's role as chief executive was seen as all the more important after Luca di Montezemolo was shown the door. Rumors persisted recently that Felisa was on his way out. With Felisa gone, Marchionne will be left running the company more directly than he has been as chairman for the past two years since supplanting Montezemolo. As it is, Marchionne serves as CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, chairman of CNH Industrial (the merged entity of Fiat Industrial and Case New Holland), and directly runs the NAFTA region for FCA, splitting his time between offices in Detroit, Turin, and Maranello. We wouldn't be surprised, then, to see Ferrari name a new CEO, or at least a senior manager to run the day to day and take some of the pressure off Marchionne, as adept as he's proven at wearing multiple hats. The company is in the process of reforming itself as a corporate entity separate from FCA, positioned more as a luxury brand, and is seeking to rediscover its former winning form on the racetrack. In the meantime, while Felisa steps down with immediate effect, he will remain on the board – his term having recently been renewed – as a technical advisor, just as Todt did before him. Related Video: Ferrari announces CEO succession Maranello (Italy), 2 May 2016 – Ferrari N.V. ("Ferrari" or "Company") (NYSE/MTA: RACE) announces the retirement of its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Amedeo Felisa, after 26 years of dedicated service. Mr. Sergio Marchionne will assume those responsibilities while retaining his current role as Chairman of the Company. Mr. Felisa will continue to serve on the Board of Directors of Ferrari with a specific mandate as technical advisor to the Company. Sergio Marchionne had this to say: "I have known Amedeo for more than a decade and I have had the opportunity to work with him closely for the last two years. He is beyond any doubt one of the best automotive engineers in the world.

New BBC Top Gear season is off to a great start

The past few years have been very demanding for Top Gear fans. The Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear got too big for itself, and the core quality of the series degraded as stunts and jokes gradually became more and more stale. Things came to a head with the Fracasgate, with Clarkson punching a producer in a very nice hotel in Yorkshire with a very nice brass plaque commemorating "The End of Clarkson's BBC Career". Fast forward to a year ago, when the BBC produced a new series of Top Gear, with famed breakfast show person and shouting enthusiast Chris Evans hosting. Laden with personnel and curiously lacking any direction, the first new season collapsed onto itself with Evans eventually quitting the entire shindig. After that, viewers received a new, Amazon-produced Clarkson-Hammond-May series called The Grand Tour, which was often brilliant and just as often hampered by writing as hackneyed as the last Clarkson years of Top Gear. Now the slate is clean. Evans is gone. The first Grand Tour season has aired. The BBC has had a good long time to re-evaluate its strategy. And the first episode of this season's Top Gear has aired in the UK - and will air March 12 on BBC America. Your first extended look at all new #TopGear, coming 5 March. See you there pic.twitter.com/lYoYOtrWxR — Top Gear (@BBC_TopGear) February 23, 2017 What an improvement! It seems like the producers have taken an ax to everything not strictly necessary for making a great car show, and they've left what is absolutely crucial. There are the three car guys, Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid. There is a new studio. There is a new track car. There is a celebrity, but it's not painful to watch. There are easy jokes, there are car jokes, there are Ronin jokes. Ronin jokes! It's as if Harris, by dissecting continuity errors in the 1998 film's BMW chase, is reaching out to us fans, saying he's one of us, and he did notice the wrong wheels when the black BMW falls from the bridge. (Other mistakes are wrong-colored tach needles, for instance.) The first car film is a quality Ferrari FXX K piece, with Harris enjoying one of the 40 built track-day specials on the bankings of Daytona. It's remarkable it was Harris who was allowed to drive the exclusive Ferrari, as the first "outsider" (in his words) to drive one; years ago Harris was one of the most vocal critics of Ferrari's practices, resulting in him getting banned from driving press Ferraris. But then again, this is a customer car.