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2007
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Ferrari
names Schumacher as new CEO
A
surprise announcement has been made today at Maranello: former F1
champion Michael Schumacher has been named as the new CEO of Ferrari.
At the same time, Jean Todt will be promoted to the post of chairman
while Luca di Montezemolo will concentrate on his job as the chairman
of Fiat Group. This ended the long speculation that what position
Schumacher would take in Maranello after his retirement from formula
one racing. Last year when asked about the role of Schumacher in the
future, Montezemolo described "his relationship with Maranello will
continue, albeit in a different form and I am very happy about that".
It is believed that Schumacher originally wanted to head the F1
division instead of the road car operation, but his cold relationship
with new star Kimi Raikkonen appeared to be an obstacle. Schumacher did not attend this year's
opening race at Melbourne. Instead, he went to Turin and negotiated
with Montezemolo, ended up to be Ferrari's new CEO. The F1 division,
however, will be overseen directly by Jean Todt.
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The Big 3: Michael Schumacher
(middle), Jean Todt (Left) and Luca di Montezemolo (Right), discussed
about the future of MS in the last round of F1 championship last year.
MS wanted to head the F1 division then.
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In the press conference held at Maranello,
Montezemolo was asked why he chose an ex-racing driver without
management experience to head Ferrari. Montezemolo said, "During the 11
years serving Ferrari, Michael demonstrated an unique ability to
integrate people working to achieve the same goal. He led our men to
struggle during our darkest days and eventually brought us the biggest
success in formula one history - seven Driver's World Champions and
seven Constructor's World Champions in total. I have all the confidence
that Michael will bring the same success to our road car division." he
added, "Our road car business faces increasingly strong competition
from Lambo.. er... the company with a bull in its logo, and that
company supplying fancy cars to James Bond. We need a strong tactician
to fend off these competitions. Hopefully Michael will use his dirty
tactics to bump our rivals off the track."
"Having lost the Championship to Renault last year was a big let down
to me"
said Schumacher. "That's why I decide to take up this
challenge (to lead Ferrari's road car division). This time I will beat
them in style. Our road cars will be quicker than the latest Renault
Twingo !" said an excited Schumacher.
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<< Schumacher celebrated his
appointment in his usual winning style. |
However, the most interesting thing to
AutoZine's readers is probably Maranello's future product plan.
Schumacher revealed that Maranello is developing a successor to the
Enzo supercar. It will be faster than Bugatti Veyron, with a top speed
of at least 300 mph. "As one of my predecessors ever said the fastest
road car has to be a Ferrari, I have no way but to claim wild numbers."
said Schumacher. A stealth technology using radar-absorbing coating on
the all carbon-fiber body will ensure the Ferrari customers free of
speeding tickets, while journalists will be unable to verify its true
top speed, thus cleverly avoiding embarrassment. The car is likely to
be named "F117A Schumacher".
Stick to Enzo Ferrari's principle of using V12 engines and the
nomenclature of naming its cars according to cylinder displacement,
Schumacher calculated the V12 engine has to displace 1400cc. "The so
many laws and principles established in this company cause me a lot of
headache", admitted Schumacher, but he said the small displacement will
help passing the EU CO2 emission limit of
130g /km. "The small displacement alone will reduce emission to about
250g /km. The remaining reduction will be implemented by an ingenious,
revolutionary, pace-setting, record-breaking, championship-winning
technology: the world's first carbon-fiber engine block !"
According to Schumacher, carbon-fiber engine block will not only reduce
weight substantially, but it will absorb the carbon-dioxide produced in
the combustion chambers and result in carbon-fiber-dioxide. "It
actually helps strengthening the block. The solid carbon-fiber-dioxide
can be removed from the engine by our technicians after a period of
time." Our question is, will the waste decompound back into CO2
in the nature ? "It doesn't matter, we will dump the waste at the
backyard of Lamborghini. It's just miles away from our headquarters,
very convenient."
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The new Ferrari CEO test drove the new Ferrari supercar by himself
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Another special feature of the new Ferrari
supercar is the position of its engine. To satisfy Enzo Ferrari's
front-engined formula and Schumacher's preference of mid-engined
machine simultaneously, Ferrari decided to split the V12 engine. Half
of the cylinders located up front and another half behind the driver.
They are connected in the middle by a Superfast F1 gearbox located on
the passenger seat. "Remember to tighten the seatbelt for it," reminded
Schumacher. Drive will be sent to the left front wheel, then
transmitted to the right rear wheel and then to right front wheel and
then back to left rear wheel and finally to the steering wheel. The
so-called "All Traction" drive system ensure optimum grip. "Even when
the car is airborne, at least the steering wheel will grip hard on the
driver's hands !"
To compensate the lack of displacement, the V12 is fed by
twin-turbochargers per cylinder. For better weight distribution, these
two dozens turbochargers are installed in the cockpit next to the
driver and right behind the air conditioning outlets, taking advantage
of the cooling air flow. For the "Challenge Stradale" version of the
car, air conditioning will be discarded to save weight. Cooling is then
provided manually by the driver by blowing air towards the
turbochargers. "The best thing is, this layout lets the driver to feel
the intense driving environment only available in F1 cars." claimed
Schumacher.
At this stage, Schumacher is declined to disclose power rating of the
car, but said "it will be very close to an elephant". It is known that
Schumacher has bought a couple of elephants as development benchmark.
Why elephant? "Because an elephant is more powerful than a bull, our
main competitor. Besides, it's easier to handle, with excellent grip
and never oversteer."
The price of F117A Schumacher will be more expensive than Enzo, simply
because Schumacher thinks his name more valuable than Enzo Ferrari.
Apart from the car, customers will get a driving lesson by Schumacher
himself and his photographs with original signature, as he has a lot of
stocks no one wants.
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