Luca di Montezemolo, 77, is a big deal in the car world, especially among Ferrarista. Personally hired by Enzo in 1972, Montezemolo recruited Niki Lauda to Scuderia Ferrari, arguably saved the company after Enzo’s death in 1988, and ruled it for 23 years before quitting in 2014. So when news broke late last week that he is joining McLaren, Ferrari’s British rival and fellow F1 constructor, hubbub ensued.
It’s not yet clear what Montezemolo wants out of this move — or why, immediately after making it, he should feel a need to pledge his allegiance to the company he left eleven years ago: “My heart is and will always remain red.”
After he departed Ferrari, Montezemolo went into the airline business. It didn’t turn out like he hoped it would, and the airline filed for bankruptcy in 2017. That brief period is overshadowed, however, by a track record second to none, an established place in the history books, and a long-rumored run at Italy’s parliament, should he choose.
A closer look at recent changes to McLaren’s ownership structure indicates that Luca will spend more time in Woking board meetings than he will trackside with Zak Brown, whose rough-around-the edges style who could not be more different than that of the elegant Italian nobleman.
Hang tight — this is where it gets corporate, and complicated.
On April 3, 2025, Abu Dhabi–based investment firm CYVN Holdings officially took over McLaren Automotive (which operates separately from McLaren Racing). CYVN then merged McLaren Automotive with British luxury EV startup Forseven. McLaren Group Holdings Ltd, was born. It also holds CYVN’s shares in McLaren Racing, which is majority owned by the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
It is to the board of Abu Dhabi–backed McLaren Group Holdings, Limited that Luca Di Montezemolo has been appointed as director. The names of the other members won’t be familiar, though their backgrounds to paint an interesting picture of where McLaren is going in this brave new age.
Luca will join board members including McLaren Racing executive chairman Paul Walsh, and the CEO of McLaren Group Holdings, Nick Collins. Walsh joined McLaren in 2020 after, evidently, making a name for himself as head of Diageo, whose liquor-centric brands include Captain Morgan, Smirnoff, Baileys, and Johnnie Walker. Of the two, it’s Collins who has the automotive background: He spent 12 years with Ford, and nine years with Jaguar-Land Rover before becoming CEO of the Forseven startup in 2024, which aimed to build luxury EVs and take on Bentley.
The vision, and ambition, of McLaren Group Holdings, Limited, are expansive. Here’s what Collins said, when Forseven merged with McLaren: “With the support and ambitions of our shareholder, we have a unique opportunity to sustainably grow McLaren into a world-beating company. The combination of what McLaren has achieved, and what Forseven has built in a short time is incredibly complementary. Together, we believe McLaren can be more, can do more and can offer more.”
Reading between the lines, some brand purists heard “McLaren SUV” and shuddered. They may have grown hopeful at the news that Montezemolo—who famously and vehemently opposed a Ferrari SUV—was joining the McLaren fold. But we simply don’t know whether Montezemolo’s conviction that Ferrari has no business in SUV translates to McLaren. There’s reason to believe, looking at Porsche and Bentley, that SUVs are the inevitable choice for a niche manufacturer to keep building cars for the die-hards, however weary said die-hards may be of said SUVs.
Luca di Montezemolo is certainly one of the most talented businesspeople around the table of McLaren Group Holdings Ltd, but how much of a voice will McLaren’s new ownership structure allow him to have? Do the powers that hold the purse strings simply desire a famous figurehead? It’s hard to imagine that an Abu Dhabi investment firm that merges McLaren with an EV startup is looking for outside opinions. And how much does Luca, a devoted Italian, identify with the mission — new or old — of a nominally British company funded by Abu Dhabi and Bahrain? Have his most revolutionary years come and gone?
It’s as clear as mud to us.