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Ferrari 488 GTB among the best car designs of 2016 [UPDATE]

Can't decide whether the Ferrari 488 GTB looks better than the 458 Italia it replaces? A design jury has make up its mind. The 2016 Red Dot design awards are being announced today, and Maranello's latest eight-cylinder, mid-engined supercar won top honors. The Red Dot Awards for Product Design recognize the best new products on the market across an array of categories and industries, including automobiles. This year's panel of 41 experts, including Chris Bangle and Ken Okuyama, evaluated some 5,200 designs. From those, they selected 1,304 for a Red Dot award, and only 79 as the "Best of the Best" – among them the new Ferrari. This is the second year in a row the Prancing Horse marque has been awarded the honor, having been earned an award for the FXX K last year. A full list of this year's honorees isn't yet available, and it's uncertain that other automakers will earn awards. Last year's list also included the Mazda MX-5, Mercedes-AMG GT, and Volvo XC90. The Peugeot 308 SW, if you can believe it, was the only car awarded Best of the Best in 2014, the Audi R8 in 2013, and the Renault Twizy in 2012. UPDATE: The Red Dot organization has released the full list of this year's product design honorees, with the McLaren 570S and Kia Optima also awarded among the Best of the Best. Red Dots were also awarded to the Audi A4, R8, and Q7, BMW 7 Series, M2, and X1, Fiat Toro, Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Sportage, Mercedes C-Class, Skoda Superb Estate, and Volvo S90. The jurists also gave Honorable Mentions to the Borgward BX 7, Genesis G90, Mini Clubman, Qoros 3 City SUV, and Smart Fortwo Cabriolet. The 488 GTB wins the Red Dot award The V8 sports car named "Best of the Best" Maranello, 30 March 2016 – The 488 GTB has won the Red Dot Best of the Best award for its design and innovative lines. This is the latest in string of plaudits garnered by the Ferrari Style Centre which also picked up several IF Design Awards in Munich, Germany, at the start of the month. On the latter occasion, the big winner was the FXX K (Red Dot Best of the Best 2015) which took home the Gold Award, the Hannover institute's top prize. However, the 488 GTB and 488 Spider also scored a double whammy at the same event with a Design Excellence Award apiece.

Ferrari USA boss takes over as F1 team principal steps down

Stefano Domenicali, the team principal of Ferrari's struggling Formula One team, has resigned. Domenicali's term at the helm of the legendary F1 team started with a bang, as the Scuderia captured the constructors' title in 2008, but went downhill rather quickly.
In his tenure, Domenicali, above, has witnessed Red Bull assert its dominance of F1 while the red cars from Italy have languished, failing to even challenge for a championship during the past four seasons. Ferrari's best season under Domenicali was 2012, and it still finished 60 points behind Red Bull.
Domenicali issued a statement saying he took "responsibility, as I have always done, for our current situation."

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.