What the F**k is what Ferrari Enzo would say with the luce

When the longest-serving chairman in Ferrari's history shows up to your car's launch event and leaves with tears in his eyes, something has gone very, very wrong.

A Little Context on Who's Talking

Luca di Montezemolo isn't just some old executive with an opinion. He ran Ferrari from 1991 to 2014, 23 years, the longest stint of anyone who has ever held the position. Before that, Enzo Ferrari himself personally asked di Montezemolo to serve as his assistant in the early 1970s. The man was handpicked by the founder. He has been part of Ferrari's story longer than most of its current customers have been alive.

And while he was in charge, Ferrari launched the F355, the F50, the 550 Maranello, the Enzo, the 458 Italia, the LaFerrari, essentially a greatest hits album of some of the most celebrated sports cars ever built. So when the Montezemolo speaks about what Ferrari should and shouldn't be, he does so with more authority than almost anyone on earth.

Which is what makes what he said at the Luce's Italian launch event so devastating.

What He Actually Said

Surrounded by journalists asking for his reaction to the Jony Ive-designed four-door electric sedan, di Montezemolo, 78 years old, visibly emotional, chose his words carefully. Almost too carefully.

"If I were to say what I really think, I'd be doing Ferrari a disservice. We risk destroying a legend, and I'm truly sorry about that. I hope they at least remove the prancing horse from that car."

There are, for the record, eight prancing horses on the exterior of the Luce. Buyers can also choose between a traditional Scuderia Ferrari badge on the front fenders or a larger silver prancing horse on the doors. So the horse is very much present, in multiple formats, all over a car that Ferrari's longest-serving chairman is publicly suggesting shouldn't be allowed to wear it.

That's not a critique. That's a funeral.

The Line That Will Be Quoted Forever

Di Montezemolo wasn't finished. When pressed further, the 78-year-old delivered what might be the single most cutting automotive one-liner of 2026, describing the Luce as "certainly a car that at least the Chinese won't copy."

Let that sit for a moment. In an era when Chinese manufacturers have become extraordinarily adept at reverse-engineering and producing near-identical versions of desirable Western cars, often at a fraction of the price, di Montezemolo's implication is clear. The Luce is so far removed from what makes a Ferrari desirable that even the most prolific copycats in the industry wouldn't bother.

Brutal doesn't quite cover it.

When the Italian Government Gets Involved

If a former Ferrari chairman expressing grief at a launch event wasn't enough, the situation escalated considerably when Italian politicians started weighing in. Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, took to social media with a post that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

"Electric, outrageously expensive, 550 thousand euros, and from an aesthetic point of view, it speaks for itself. It looks like anything but a car from the Prancing Horse. And this is supposed to be innovation? Who knows what Enzo Ferrari would say?"

Consider what it takes for a sitting Italian government minister to publicly criticise Ferrari. Ferrari is not just a car company in Italy; it is a national institution, a source of cultural pride so deep that politicians typically treat it with the reverence usually reserved for ancient monuments. For Salvini to write a post like that, openly, with his name attached, suggests the Luce has created a level of discomfort that goes well beyond the usual enthusiast grumbling.

Where This Leaves Ferrari

The Luce is a $600,000-plus electric four-door sedan designed by Jony Ive, the man behind the iPhone and the iMac, and it is generating the kind of reaction that no luxury car manufacturer wants anywhere near a product launch. The most generous things being said about it are "at least it's not boring" and "I'd like it if it weren't a Ferrari." Neither of those is a compliment. Both of them are essentially saying the same thing: this car is fine in the abstract, but deeply wrong as a Ferrari.

Whether it actually drives like one remains to be seen. Ferrari hasn't exactly been rushing journalists into the driver's seat, and given the reception the car has received, that reluctance is probably going to intensify rather than ease.

Di Montezemolo built Ferrari's golden era car by car, model by model, over more than two decades. He didn't show up at the Luce's launch to cause trouble. He showed up because he loves the company, and what he saw there moved him almost to tears.

That says everything you need to know about the Ferrari Luce that the press release doesn't.