Why Fast Cars And The Slow Life Go Together

Tracy Lee chats with Ferrari's president of Far East and Middle East Dieter Knechtel and discovers how the Italian marque achieved record sales during the pandemic, and why fast cars and the slow life go together.

- Tracy Lee

Speed, maneuverability and performance are three words you'd normally associate with sports cars, but we can say the same of the way Ferrari operates as a business, enabling it to not just survive but thrive during challenging times such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dieter Knechtel, Ferrari's president of the Far East and the Middle East, recalls: “The situation in Italy was severe in March and April 2020. The factory had to be closed for seven weeks. It gave us time to reset and reconsider our priorities. The company implemented a network-wide programme called Back On Track throughout our offices and dealerships to protect our employees, their families, and our clients. In the end, we saw a reduction in production numbers and a little dip in sales in 2020, but nothing too dramatic.

A seasoned car veteran, Knechtel has been in the automobile industry for a quarter of a century. He has lived and worked in Asia for almost 20 years, arriving first in Tokyo in 2003 as APAC marketing manager for French car manufacturer Renault. Then, he went to China to head Porsche's dealer group before joining Ferrari in 2015.

Despite the global and unprecedented nature of the pandemic, along with the accompanying changes in the way we work, play and live, Ferrari's new product launches proceeded strictly according to schedule, first with rollouts of the 812 GTS and the F8 Tributo. These two models are the very last non-hybrid Ferrari models and will be discontinued in line with the company's goals to present the first full-electric battery car in 2025, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.