Wednesday 8th October 2014

Ferrari's technical boss to BMW?

First di Montezemolo, now the technical brains behind the road cars he presided over...

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Word on the street - or, more accurately, Twitter - has it that Ferrari's Technical Director Roberto Fedeli has left the company and been hired by BMW.

In a story published by Automotive News Europe Ferrari apparently told them Fedeli's departure has nothing to do with the recent departure of Luca di Montezemolo and he handed his notice in before Ferrari's boss was given his marching orders.

We rang Ferrari's UK office for confirmation but were told "we're not passing comment" on the story and that Maranello "hasn't confirmed that he has gone" and nor would it be standard practice for it to do so. Or indeed comment on any new role he may have gone to. For its part a BMW spokesperson confirmed that Fedeli will be joining the firm but wouldn't specifiy details of the role he'll be undertaking.

To be fair Fedeli ended on a spectacular high

Not so long ago we might have expected senior Ferrari technical staff to follow Bahar's invitation to join the team at Hethel but those days are gone and it seems the company with the hitlist for senior engineers is now BMW, following the recent announcement that it had poached former Audi Quattro boss Franciscus van Meel to head up M GmbH. Does that leave space for Fedeli to join M too or is his expertise in lightweight engineering and performance-oriented hybrid powertrains - expressed so vividly in the LaFerrari project he headed - of more interest to BMW's mainstream passenger cars division?

That remains to be seen but if confirmed it would be an interesting appointment, given that last time we spoke to Fedeli he told us 'mainstream' use of carbon fibre had limited functional benefits in terms of weight saving compared with more conventional materials like aluminium and was only really functionally worthwhile in handbuilt specials like the Enzo or LaFerrari. Given BMW's pumped a great deal of money into 'productionising' carbon fibre construction for mainstream cars with the i3 and i8 will Fedeli be changing his tune? It'll be interesting to see.

And with Ferrari losing both its charismatic leader and, now, the engineer who made his vision for Ferrari road cars such a success where does that leave Maranello? Don't expect any answer from them any time soon but, like di Montezemolo, Fedeli leaves his successor some big shoes to fill. And, we'd venture, some happy faces in Woking and Sant'Agata.

[Sources: Automotive News Europe via BMW Blog]

[bubney72]

Damn, he will be missed.

[pagani1]

Let us hope Roberto Fedeli sorts out the decline in resolved handling that new 3, 4, and 5 series BMW's display.
They are no longer the top of the tree in their marketplace. How did the company oversee this decline and expect the enthusiast to applaud?
Could do much better BMW- the dealers are better than the product!

[Munich]

May be BMW want to do a proper sports car, to rival the R8 and AMG GT.

[jetfire]

Carbon bodied & hybrid-ised successor to the M1 on the way?

[MyCC]

Munich said:

May be BMW want to do a proper sports car, to rival the R8 and AMG GT.

I don't think they will do that now they have the i8. There is a relatively limited market for petrol powered coupes £85k +.

Regards,

MyCC.

[smilo996]

Excellent, even more dominent German automotive industry. Sad news.

[suffolk009]

I thought the rumour was that the new Ferrari boss has a passion for platform sharing.

Perhaps there's little need for top engineers when the new flagship Ferrari will be sharing the same underpinnings as a Fiat 500.