As a sign that Ferrari’s executives ran out of ideas as to what name they should pick for their next year’s F1 car, the Italian automaker turned to its Internet followers for this difficult task.
Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari F1’s team president, announced during his traditional Christmas press briefing that the company is looking for help from its ever-growing fan base to baptize their 2014 car. Apparently, the name of this year’s car (F138, after the year and the V8 engine) wasn’t the most inspired ever, so the automaker hopes that its Internet followers have better muses.
Crowdsourcing the name or the color of a car is an admirable approach, as the fans are left with the impression that they somehow contributed to one of the automaker’s decision. However, I’m very curious about the degree of liberty fans will have. Since it’s the Internet we’re talking about and things can really get out of hand when fans have total control over the final decision (Pitbull had to concert in Kodiak, Alaska, as the result of an Internet exile prank, dale), such crowdsourcing initiatives should take place under very strict rules. One of the options Ferrari has is to offer the fans a few alternatives and let them vote the best one. Otherwise, it may be end up with such names as F150 King Ranch, LaFormulaUnoTurbo, Shumi-Shumi-Coco-Puff, Berlusconi, LaOtherFerarri (these are only some of the suggestions Jalopnik readers made).
When it comes to the names of this Italian automaker’s cars, I do prefer alphanumeric names such as F70 instead of such atrocities as LaFerrari (come to think that Hublot made a watch with that name – that one’s a real beauty, despite its uninspired name). At least the company has displayed some consistency over the years by using that pattern for its cars, eventually followed by a denomination such as Spider, Superamerica, Scuderia or Maranello.
As a child, I used to like very much watching F1 races, but I grew out of this. Waking up early on Sunday mornings to watch the race used to be a habit that I no longer have. Still, I admire F1 drivers for their reflexes and skills, and I assume the name of the car they drive has an influence, no matter how small, on their performance. I really hope that Ferrari’s fans will pick a decent name, or even one that boosts the confidence of the driver.
If you liked this post, please check the crowdsourced Porsche 911 Carrera 4S and the Facebook Porsche 911.
