On the eve of the Monza Grand Prix (September 16^th, 2001), Maranello, home of Ferrari, is not entirely happy. Ferrari, according to rumours, is working on plans for a new official direct outlet for all Ferrari-brand products. If the rumours should prove true this would spell disaster for all the small companies that base their economy around the Ferrari name. Ferrari has been threatening to open an official shop, with an estimated projected income of LIT six billion (3,100,000 Euros) for some time in order to cut pirate goods out of the sector for good. When Ferrari president, Montezemolo, announced the opening of Ferrari.net along with the joint websites www.ferrari.com (e-commerce) and www.media.ferrari.com (news and marketing) which replaced the old www.ferrari.it, he declared "Internet will mean big business for Ferrari in the future" (LIT 20 billion - 10,329,327 Euros in royalties for the 1999 season alone). Now with Michael Schumacher's second consecutive world championship under their belt Ferrari's earnings are due to rise even more.
Montezemolo has set up a new company, "Ferrari Idea", based in Lugano, for merchandising and promotions and, awaiting its impact on the market here are some sites where you can buy Ferrari products on the net (not all are wholly official).
The Ferrari merchandise shop has everything you could ask for from red macs to wear to the rainier Grand Prix to ear-plugs to protect against the engines' roar. The latter cost $4,and were available on another (slower) Belgian site for BFR195, or 4.83 Euros - that's LIT 9,350. Making the official site slightly better value. It's on to Ferrariworld.com where we opted for a book on the history of Ferrari for 78 Euros.
From there we head to Maranello to Warm-up which boasts a most elegant black Ferrari toilet bag for LIT 62,500 (32.27 Euros) among this year's new products. So what are you waiting for? Off you go to Maranello and stock up on your Ferrari gear while you still can.