Ferrari: Tradition and Passion

Having been founded in 1947, Ferrari celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. As the General Manager of Ferrari Budapest, Emanuele Lippi explains to Diplomacy&Trade, Ferrari's history is the history of motor racing. With tradition and innovation combined, the owners of road cars can also enjoy the company’s professionalism.

Regarding the historical development over these seven and a half decades, the General Manager points out that “at the beginning, Ferrari’s focus was mainly on the race cars, competing in Formula One, Le Mans, etc. But then, they started to transfer all this technology also on the road cars and thus, the production volume began to increase. Still, the racing part has always been the soul of the company. Even today, it is stressed all the time that our racing heritage is something that must always be cherished through Formula One. In addition, we will go back on the 24-hour Le Mans race with the new hypercar next year.”

Sports cars and road cars
Ferrari's history is the history of motor racing with many of the cutting-edge technology solutions found in road versions derived from the racing world. As an example, Emanuele Lippi mentions that “in the 1990s, the 355 model was the first car in the world using the Formula One power shifting that was a great example of how Ferrari really transferred the Formula One technology to a road car. Nowadays, we can see Ferrari starting the hybridization of its road cars. The first hybrid car was the Laferrari, but let's say in a more sophisticated way, the real first one was the SF90, which is a very nice example of how Ferraris transferred the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) concept to the road cars. Basically, the SF90 has a combustion engine and an electric (battery) engine to run the front wheels and one between the gearbox and the engine, similar to the Formula One. This technology is transferred in a way that the car is giving the full power and it is working similarly to the Formula One race where, on every qualifying lap, the batteries are charging themselves. I believe Ferrari is the only brand which can really do this one to one – from Formula One directly to the road cars.”

Formula One: sports and business
Ferrari has always been a team to recon with in Formula One racing. Although their last constructor’s title was back in 2008, the team already had four wins this season, the latest one in Australia. Evaluating Ferrari’s Formula One participation from the viewpoints of sports and business, the General Manager highlights that “for us, Formula One is the image of the brand. For instance, marketing-wise, there are other activities, usually more connected to the clients, but participation in Formula One races is advertising in itself for Ferrari. That is why a win in Formula One is helping the business worldwide in terms of brand awareness, in terms of, I would say, sales as well. That is because a lot of sales by Ferrari is not only the cars themselves, but there is merchandising and lot of extra business which are connected. Obviously, winning in Formula One is giving you much more success and is good for business – not only for Ferrari as a company, but for the whole entourage around the Formula One. That is because if we see this year that Ferrari is competitive, all the circuits are fully booked. Ferrari is a historical brand. If there is a Ferrari victory in Formula One, that creates a lot of attention from everybody.”

Tradition and innovation
As to how much tradition and innovation is combined at Ferrari, Emanuele Lippi stresses that this is something that will keep going on forever with Ferrari because the passion, the tradition, especially in Maranello, where all the cars are built, the professionalism of the people – all these have a long history. “This is something, which you will always find in the cars. Obviously, in technology – thanks to Formula One –, we can always push forward. Ferrari’s new CEO, Benedetto Vigna is coming from, let's say, the electric world. It is a clear example of how Ferrari wants to position itself in the future also. It wants to develop and exploit this technology as much as possible because, regardless whether we want it or not, we will be forced by the European Union to go in this direction. Ferrari already has a lot of plans in this regard and the technology will be exploited always in a Ferrari way, which means that we are searching for power, searching for higher technology but still keeping the passion for racing, a passion for our history.”

Improving customer experience
In Hungary, Ferrari has another anniversary: its showroom in the Bank Center in downtown Budapest is ten years old in 2022. The General Manager notes that “being a family business is something that will always guide us to see things on the long term. We decided to move to this location because somehow, we felt that the center of Budapest was a good location not really because of catching the people around the Bank Center itself, but rather for the image of the brand. We are very happy here. We created a new corporate identity, and last year, we refurbished the showroom because with a constant development on the product side, Ferrari is also working on improving customer experience. It means that we have a new layout in the showroom, demonstrating our constant commitment to the brand on a long run. We have already started to talk about the future in terms of facility because luckily, business is quite stable and steadily growing: we sell around the 70 new cars and 30-40 used cars per year, which means that we need a certain type of facility to follow this growth as well. So, in terms of showroom and the services as well as new technology coming in, there are plans for the future. It is also a requirement on our side to welcome people in a different way to provide different types of services.”

A fun place to be
Regarding feedback from customers, Emanuele Lippi highlights that they always keep a very familiar environment. “We believe that, especially in this particular moment after COVID and other well-known circumstances, welcoming the community and familiar faces is a winning concept. People really enjoy to come here to visit us, to share some passion moments, some memories, some activities what they did maybe with their own car or just to discuss the configuration of the new car or the car that will arrive. So, this is also a fun moment for them. They usually come with either their family or their friends. So, it's really a fun place to be, not one with a very strict shop atmosphere. Sometimes, we even do evening programs to meet with the clients here. So, it's like going to the pub with friends to enjoy a kind of family atmosphere here.”