If Formula 1 has been a source of mixed satisfaction for Ferrari this year, in Maranello they can still toast: Ferrari continues a phase of strong growth, with quarterly record results in terms of revenues, EBITDA and EBIT. The quality of the first six months and the robustness of the company’s business allowed it to revise upward the 2022 guidance on all metrics.
The historic Italian company, in fact, has updated its numbers with another double-digit growth for all the main components of the income statement, from revenues to profits, passing through operating margins.
In the second quarter, deliveries reached 3,455 units, an increase of 28.7% over the same period last year. This is mainly due to the new supercars of the Portofino M and the F8 family. The growth in volumes pushed revenues to improve by 24.9%, to 1.291 billion, with the Auto and Parts component up by 25%, with 1.1 billion. While from sponsorships and other business areas such as Formula 1, the company had an income of 117 million (+ 29.5%).
The business area is the modern declination of the Prancing Horse Racing Department. The data speaks for itself: the sporting performance of the company branch that oversees the motorsport activities does not in any way affect the overall economic result of the Italian company.
It is good to underline that the economic health of one of the Italian excellences is a great result that must make the Ferrari men and any Italian citizens proud, especially given the painful social repercussions that so many companies were not able to economically overcome, first due to the pandemic tsunami and now the energy issue.
From a purely sporting point of view, the immediate reflection is that the performances expressed on the track by the racing cars of the Prancing Horse do not in the least affect the charm of the brand and consequently the sales. In such a context, from a financial point of view, the immediate logical association leads us to think that the presence of Scuderia Ferrari in motorsport is a “nice to have” topic.
The future programs of sports management include an expansion of the official commitment of the historic Italian company in 2023 with participation in the WEC (World Endurance Championship). An extension of official commitments that has already made it possible for Ferrari to distribute highly professional personnel in other sectors, given the fact that the budget cap restrictions have inevitably imposed a drastic reduction in the staff allocated to the Formula 1 program.
The point of view of Ferrari fans around the world, of those who in most cases will never be able to buy a Ferrari road car, is full of perplexity. After the golden age of Michael Schumacher whose winning inertia ended with the Constructors’ title back in 2008, the Maranello team managed to compete for the world championship in the last race only in the daring Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2010, when the strategic harakiri of the pit wall deprived Fernando Alonso of the third world title.
Suffice to say that since the start of the turbo-hybrid era, back in 2014, out of 171 races that have taken place, only twenty occasions have seen a red one crossing the finish line first. There have been 4 seasons in which Ferrari has not won a single race (2014, 2016, 2020 and 2021). The 2022 season had started under the best prospects with a domination until the fourth round of the world championship at Imola. In the remaining 10 rounds, we could only enjoy two more victories and watch an incredible series of technical problems and incomprehensible strategic choices.
While the number 1 of Exor and president of Ferrari, John Elkann, remains silent on the delicate sporting moment of Ferrari.
An ancient proverb says that the best word is that which is not said. We could imagine that the young president of the Red team has beaten his fists on the table, deeming the results achieved in relation to the potential of F1-75 as inadmissible as well as the incredible strategic errors perpetuated in recent years. In reality, the manager of the Agnelli family has neither the skills nor the obsessive passion that can make such a reaction likely.
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And the final balance of the first part of the 2022 Formula 1 season outlined by Mattia Binotto is not exactly that of a manager unhappy: “The balance of this first part of the season for Ferrari can only be positive. In the 13 races so far we have failed only one race. In others we didn’t win for various reasons. At times they were also frustrated, disappointed, because we deserved much better results. But in 12 out of 13 races we were always there to fight for the victory “
Unfortunately, Formula 1 is not the game of bowling in which the one closest to the target wins. You have reach the target and do it each weekend, avoiding unnecessary proclamations, systematically disregarded, as team principal Christian Horner was able to stress in a provocative way: “Even if we had won with a lap of advantage, I would still have been prudent. I would never say that we will finish first and second in another race “.
Net of the reliability problems on the power units, which can be remedied through the derogations granted by the FIA, the technical sectors have produced the best car in 2022. A reset is now necessary, so that the skills demonstrated by the design engineers are not further compromised, which could lead to a frustration that later results in losing the brightest minds working behind the scenes.
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