PRESS RELEASE: MAIN FERRARI SpA BOARD MEETING 3rd February

Ferrari President, Luca di Montezemolo put forward to the Board, which met on 3rdFebruary, that Ing. Paolo Marinsek should be coopted onto the Board as Administrative Delegate to the company responsible for Grand Touring cars.

The Sporting Section, run by Jean Todt will continue to report directly to the President. The change in Ferrari organisation comes at a particularly positive time for the Company. 1997, its fiftieth anniversary year, saw a new sales record for Grand Touring cars with an increase of 8.1% over 1996. Cars registered in the 40 countries where Ferrari operates directly (which constitute 90% of the entire world car market) were 3,581; since 1993, when there were 2,345 registrations, there has been a steady increase: 2,792 in 1994, 3,307 in 1995 and 3,313 in 1996.

Thanks to this result, Ferrari for the first time has passed the 1000 billion lire point in consolidated sales with a strong increase. As usual the biggest market is the USA with 805 cars sold, representing 22.5%. Then comes Germany with 605 cars, the UK with 421, Italy with 391 and Japan with 287. Five of these markets, Germany, UK, Japan, Spain and Australia have had record sales in 1997.

These figures are the result of several factors: the completion of the in-depth reorganisation of the production process and the of the international sales and service network, the return of the Formula 1 team to the highest level of competitivity, the great commercial success of the 550 Maranello in its first year (with triple the sales of the previous 512 M) and in the second half of the year, the extraordinary response to the Formula 1-type Ferrari gearchange fitted for the first time to a road car, the 8 cylinder F 355. The F1 style gearchange is in fact requested in 60% of orders for the F355 which confirms the significance given to innovation introduced onto the road cars by the customer base; additionally there is the use of aerodynamics to improve grip with ground effect (on all models), variable injection tried in Formula 1 and fitted to the 550 Maranello engine.

1997 sales, between the 12 cylinder and the 8 cylinder are split as follows: 1,211 units for the 12 cylinder (550 Maranello, 456 GT 2+2 and F 50) equivalent to 34% and 2,370 for the 8 cylinder (F 355 berlinetta, GTS and Spider) equal to 66%.

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