2012 Ferrari 458 Italia. on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Race Recap: 2016 European GP was a cakewalk for Rosberg

Formula 1 teams had no setup data or tire information for the six-kilometer Baku City Circuit hosting the European Grand Prix, and that's the reason for much of the weekend's excitement. Nico Rosberg snatched pole position after Mercedes-AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton hit the wall during qualifying. When the lights went out, Rosberg put in a clinical drive way out front to score his second career grand slam: pole position, leading every lap, fastest lap, and victory. Sebastian Vettel put in a similarly lonely drive in his Ferrari to second. The German had little to do on track other than get around his teammate on Lap 28, and that came courtesy of team orders. Sergio Perez started from second on the grid, but a gearbox change after clouting the wall during Free Practice dropped him to seventh. The Mexican cut his way through the field after his sole pit stop on Lap 17 of the 51-lap race, passing Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for third on the final lap. It's Perez's second podium in three races after finishing third in Monaco. Force India has five podium finishes in its eight-year history, and Perez's name is on four of them. Raikkonen followed in fourth. Stewards hit the Finn with a five-second penalty for crossing the pit-entry line during the race, so even if Perez hadn't passed him on track, Raikkonen would have been classified fourth. Hamilton's up-and-down weekend ended with a burst of radio messages and a whimper. He climbed from tenth on the grid to fifth in the race, then his energy recovery system began harvesting in the wrong places. The snafu cost Hamilton two seconds per lap compared to the leaders. The trouble came from a switch turned to the incorrect position, but the FIA ban on driver assistance meant Hamilton's engineer couldn't tell the driver how to fix the problem. At one point when Hamilton said he was going to reset the whole car, his engineer replied, "Um, we don't advise that, Lewis." Hamilton finally found the proper setting on Lap 43, but turned the engine down again when he realized he couldn't catch the leaders. Mercedes said that Rosberg had the same issue, but Rosberg fixed it on his own. Valtteri Bottas got his Williams across the line four seconds behind Hamilton. Red Bull teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen couldn't get their tires to work, forcing both racers to pit twice before finishing seventh and eighth.

Ferrari to list stock on Italian exchange

Ferrari announced Monday it will list its stock on the Mercato Telematico Azionario – the main section of the Borsa Italia stock exchange in Milan. The news comes a little over a month after the exotic automaker launched its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's stock listings are the culmination of a long process that dates to the merger of Fiat and Chrysler, if not earlier. Once the two auto giants came together, they merged their brand portfolio under one umbrella, incorporating the Dodge, Ram, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati brands, as well as Mopar, Lancia, Fiat Professional, and the Fiat and Chrysler brands themselves. Ferrari, however, was deemed a separate entity, even after FCA chief Sergio Marchionne wrested control of the Maranello-based outfit from longtime chairman Luca di Montezemolo. Almost exactly one year after FCA launched its IPO on the NYSE, Ferrari did the same. Nine percent of its common shares were listed under the symbol RACE. Another one percent was offered to the listing's underwriters. Ten percent remains in the hands of Enzo Ferrari's family, led by his son and company vice-chairman Piero Ferrari. And the remaining 80 percent will be distributed among FCA's shareholders. FERRARI APPLIES TO LIST SHARES ON MTA Ferrari N.V. (NYSE: RACE) and FE New N.V.1 announced today the filing of the application for the listing, in connection with the planned separation of Ferrari N.V. from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., of the common shares of Ferrari on the Mercato Telematico Azionario organized and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A. Maranello, 23 November 2015 1As part of the separation, Ferrari N.V. will be merged into FE New N.V. which immediately before the merger will hold the shares in Ferrari N.V. now held by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. FE New N.V. will then be renamed Ferrari N.V., and its common shares will be listed on the MTA and the New York Stock Exchange.

Ferrari 458 M spotted, is there a turbo under there?

While it's still absolutely beautiful and a performance marvel (especially in Speciale trim), the Ferrari 458 Italia has to keep up with the rapidly evolving world in supercars if it wants to continue its success. Ferrari seems to know that it can't sit back and relax, because we're now seeing a disguised 458 testing for the second time.
Since we first saw it, rumor has emerged that it updated 458, reportedly called 458 M, may follow the lead of the recently revised California by using its turbocharged 3.9-liter V8 engine. The mill makes 553 horsepower and 557 pound-feet in that application, but those numbers clearly won't be enough for the Prancing Horse, because the standard 458 already makes more. Instead, Ferrari is expected to turn things up significantly to produce around 670hp, even more than the already gutsy Speciale.
Of course, to make the big change work, the 458 M must be able to ingest huge quantities of cool air to feed those turbos, and the camouflage on this test car is likely hiding the body changes to make that possible. Ferrari does a great job here of disguising things up front on this prototype, making it frustratingly hard to spot any changes.