On 28 June 2002, Mediobanca agreed to buy a 34 percent stake in Ferrari from Fiat. The deal was not a racing result, but it belonged to the machinery behind the most dominant team in Formula 1 at the time: ownership, finance and the value of the Ferrari name.
Fiat was under financial pressure, while Ferrari was operating from a position of extraordinary sporting strength. Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello were driving the F2002, Jean Todt was running the racing operation, Ross Brawn was directing strategy and Rory Byrne’s cars had turned Ferrari from an emotional giant into a competitive machine with very little patience for opposition.
Business behind the red cars
The sale gave Fiat cash while allowing Ferrari’s structure to remain broadly controlled through Italian hands. Piero Ferrari retained his share, while Mediobanca’s stake could later be sold down to other financial institutions. On track, nothing obvious changed the following Sunday because share transactions rarely make a car faster into Turn 1.
That is what made the deal interesting. Ferrari in 2002 was both a racing team and a luxury-industrial asset whose value was becoming clearer as Formula 1’s global reach grew. The Grand Prix operation fed the brand, the brand fed the valuation, and the valuation mattered far beyond qualifying reports.
Ferrari would later move through further corporate changes, including separation from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and a public listing. The 2002 Mediobanca deal sits earlier in that story, when the team was crushing Formula 1 competitively while the company around it was being treated as one of Fiat’s most valuable assets.
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