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Ferrari to keep CEO Amedeo Felisa post spin-off

Ferrari is undergoing a big shakeup, and not just on the Formula One racing grid. It's just parted ways with its longtime chairman, is being spun off from the rest of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles group and will soon launch its initial public offering on the stock market. But one thing it's not about to change at this point is its CEO. Speaking to journalists in Milan this past Friday, FCA chairman John Elkann said, "There will be no CEO change," indicating that the job of chief executive Amedeo Felisa is secure for at least a while longer. After two decades at Alfa Romeo, Felisa joined Ferrari back in 1990, was named general manager in 2006 and chief executive in 2008. In that capacity, he's always reported to company chairman Luca di Montezemolo, whose place was recently taken by Sergio Marchionne. It remains unclear, however, just how directly involved Marchionne will remain in the Prancing Horse marque, especially after the spin-off, and what that would mean for Felisa. In launching the IPO, Ferrari could institute a loyalty scheme that would award additional stake to the company's oldest and largest shareholders – which would only further entrench the holdings of the Agnelli family which Elkann heads and which stands to become the largest stakeholder in Ferrari after its separation from the rest of the group.

Track lapping in Ferrari's new 488 GTB

With the floodgates opening on impressions about Ferrari's latest 488 GTB, Chris Harris is the latest person to climb into the driver's seat and give his initial opinions on the Prancing Horse's latest turbocharged effort. The 488 GTB is a hard vehicle to pin down, though. It looks vaguely like the naturally aspirated 458 but practically every component is thoroughly revised. While the headline-grabber is the 660-horsepower, 3.9-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 that's positioned behind the driver, the coupe also benefits from new adjustable dampers, upgraded brakes, and more. To figure things out, Harris laps the Prancing Horse around the track and eventually moves to some tight, Italian backroads. Of course being a video from Chris Harris on Cars, you can expect some big, smoky slides in addition to erudite thoughts on this Ferrari with forced induction.

Why all of this year's F1 noses are so ugly [w/video]

If you're a serious fan of Formula One, you already know all about The Great Nosecone Conundrum of 2014. Those given to parsing each year's F1 regulations predicted the strong possibility of the so-called "anteater" noses as far back as early December 2013. Highly suggestive visual evidence first came after Caterham's crash test in early January, with further proof coming as soon as Williams showed a rendering of the FW36 challenger for this year's championship. That car earned a name that wasn't nearly so kind as "anteater."
Casual followers of the sport - or anyone who gets the feed from this site - probably don't know what's happening, except to wonder why the current year's F1 cars are led by appendages that would make Cyrano de Bergerac feel a whole lot better about himself.
The short answer to the question of ugsome F1 noses is "FIA regulations and safety." The reason there are various kinds of ugsome noses is simpler: engineers. The same boffins who have given us advances including carbon fiber monocoques, six-wheeled cars, double diffusers and Drag Reduction Systems are bred to do everything in their power to exploit every possible freedom in the regulations to make the cars they're building go faster - the caveat being that those advances have to work within the overall philosophy of the whole car.