Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, chairman of Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari, is quitting to be replaced by the boss of parent group Fiat after the two men clashed over strategy and the Formula One team’s poor results.

Montezemolo, one of Italy’s best-known and most colourful businessmen and a protege of Fiat’s founding Agnelli family, will leave on October 13.

That day, the newly merged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is due to be listed in New York.

Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne hopes the allure of Ferrari, one of the world’s strongest luxury brands, will help drive US investor interest in the new automaker.

Longer term, however, the question is whether the 62-year-old Italian-Canadian, whose pedigree is in the mass-market world of Fiat and Chrysler, can maintain the cachet of the renowned Ferrari brand.

Under Montezemolo Ferrari raced to the top of the Formula One grid.

However, Ferrari has not won a drivers’ or constructors’ title since 2008, and Marchionne said on Sunday that the team’s performance was “unacceptable”.

That was widely seen as a public sacking of Montezemolo.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.