Ferrari Shows No Favoritism to Anyone when Releasing its ‘Gifts’
Think working at Maranello gives you a leg up? Think again.
When it comes to getting your hands on the latest Ferrari supercar, you’re going to be waiting a while because at the moment only F1 drivers can call dibs. And not just any Formula One drivers, but only the Scuderia’s current two pilots: Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen — and that they still pay full price.
During a recent interview, Enrico Galliera, Ferrari’s chief marketing and commercial officer, said that the Prancing Horse generally puts its customers first and does not necessarily show favoritism to its employees nor anyone else when it comes to serious business matters. In essence, the house of Maranello follows a strict code regarding vehicle sales, one that sees no one above paying customers.
Galliera also shared that he’s often jokingly called “Dr. No.” Why? Because he has the intimidating job of telling a fair share of influential millionaires that they may have to wait a bit before they can get behind the wheel of Ferrari’s most coveted machinery. And he has to do it with every new release. As you can imagine, some of these folks don’t take “no” lightly and sometimes go as far as filing lawsuits when denied the latest and greatest. Not unlike the flea market magnate did when he claims he was denied a LaFerrari Aperta.
“We have much higher demand than the availability,” says Galliera. “So, what we do is identify criteria that is rewarding good customers. The limited edition cars we consider a gift to our best customers.”
Now, if you ask us, vetting customers and calling multi-million-dollar cars “gifts” to customers is completely un-Enzo-Ferrari like. If the ‘ole bull was still around, he’d likely collect as much cash as possible only to throw invest any profit into Formula One to make the cars even better.
Galliera went on to explain that maintaining excellent relationships with customers is key. Therefore, no employee nor company executive can buy directly from the factory. While we’re not sure if most of the assembly line folks can easily slide into a California T with their salary, we imagine that this rule is a bummer nonetheless, because, hey, you never know when you might win the lottery.
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