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Ferrari set to hit new sales goal early to boost profits

As much as some of us would like to believe otherwise, building cars is a business. Most automakers are out to sell as many cars as they can build, chasing ever growing sales and profits. Ferrari is playing a different sort of game. For years, the Italian automaker has artificially limited the number of cars it produces. But the company does have plans to ramp up production to 9,000 units a year. According to Automotive News, Ferrari will hit that goal in 2018, a full year earlier than expected. A report says that in 2018, Ferrari will double the number of shifts at its plants. Sometime next year, Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne is expected to announce the automaker's first SUV, a vehicle that's sure to push that 9,000-unit limit to the max. SUV sales are up across the board. The number-one selling models at companies like Porsche, Jaguar and Lexus are all SUVs. The goal is to double profits to $2.35 billion by 2022. Limiting total output has a two-fold benefit. First, it maintains a level of exclusivity and prestige, making the cars more desirable. Secondly, it allows Ferrari to operate under different fuel economy and emissions standards than larger, mainstream automakers. It's difficult to hit some goals like that when your "entry-level" model is powered by a 591-horsepower twin-turbocharged V8. Related Video:

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.

Ferrari picks up ex-Sauber driver Esteban Gutierrez as test pilot

With McLaren's long-awaited confirmation of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, the grid for the 2015 Formula One World Championship is finally complete. (That is, at least, aside from the bankrupt Caterham and Marussia teams, whose fate for next season still remain open.) But with the big game of musical chairs now drawn to a close, not everyone who had a seat this year will have one the next. And that includes one Esteban Gutierrez, who lost his ride with Sauber but has landed a test driver role with Ferrari instead. Gutierrez climbed up through the formula racing ladder, winning the 2008 Formula BMW Europe and 2010 GP3 titles before getting his start as a test driver with the Sauber team – a role which he held for two seasons while simultaneously putting up a good fight and winning races in GP2. Sauber promoted him to the race seat in 2013 (when he placed a career-best seventh place at the Japanese Grand Prix) and kept him on board for another season. But after failing to finish in the points even once this past year, both he and veteran team-mate Adrian Sutil were both replaced for next season. Taking their place will be Marcus Ericsson (who drove for Caterham this year) and newcomer Felipe Nasr (who served this season as test driver at Williams). That's left Gutierrez without a race seat, but Scuderia Ferrari has snapped him up as its official test and reserve driver for next season. In that capacity he'll be offered the chance to drive top-flight machinery and hone his skills with a front-running team, and will be on standby should either Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen be unable to drive at one grand prix or another. Most of the other teams have yet to confirm their third drivers, but Williams recently announced it was promoting Susie Wolff to the job and McLaren confirmed Kevin Magnussen was bumped down for next season to make way for Alonso. The move may strike some as odd since Gutierrez is not part of the Ferrari Driver Academy development program, but Sauber has long shared close ties with the Maranello-based team. Ferrari supplies engines to Sauber, which in turn sometimes graduates drivers to the Scuderia. Former Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella both drove for Sauber, and current drivers Vettel and Raikkonen both got their starts there as well. A Mexican driver is back to Maranello Maranello, 15 December 2014 – Ferrari announces that, as from next season, Esteban Gutierrez will become part of the Scuderia workforce.