I grew up a Ferrari fan the way a lot of Indian boys did: on the cover of a Navneet notebook. Mine carried the Enzo. The car lived on cardboard, and for a schoolboy in India, that was about as close as a Ferrari got. So walking into Yashobhoomi in New Delhi on a Saturday in October, under one roof with the cars of Ferrari's tribute drive, the schoolboy took over for a minute. Twenty-five Ferraris had just covered roughly 1,800 km from Mumbai, through Vadodara, Udaipur, Jaipur and Agra, to be here. Around them sat Universo Ferrari, Maranello's travelling exhibition, in India for the first time: the SF-26 Formula 1 car, the triple Le Mans-winning 499P, the F80, the Daytona SP3's 840 cv V12 displayed by itself, and a 612 Scaglietti that ran the 13,000-km Magic India Discovery tour back in 2008. 

Ferrari understands aspiration better than any brand alive, and it rations access with precision. The public got tickets to walk the exhibition until 1 November. The media got a morning with Maranello's greatest inventions. Clients got a private dinner and a charity auction. The cars remain, as ever, a separate conversation. Ferrari lets the whole country look. It just doesn't let everyone in.

This time, it brought everything. The Luce, Ferrari's first all-electric car, had its India unveiling. KUN Group in Chennai and Infinity Group in Ahmedabad will join the dealer network by the end of 2026, taking India to four partners and five dealerships. Students from the National Institute of Design worked with Ferrari Design on ten digital Tailor Made cars, each one inspired by an Indian city. Around 1,000 students attended sessions with Ferrari's leaders. For a company that famously refuses to hurry, this was Maranello going all guns blazing.

The man selling it is three months into the job. Massimiliano Di Silvestre became Ferrari's Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer on 1 July 2026, after nearly seven years running BMW Group Italia. He arrived weeks after the Luce's reveal in Rome, where the five-seat, 1,050-hp electric car drew a storm of memes, a public rebuke from former chairman Luca di Montezemolo and a share price slide of nearly 8%. The buyers saw it differently. By July, CEO Benedetto Vigna said Ferrari's order book covered all of 2027, and reports had the Luce's 2026 allocation sold out within about two months.

I'll confess I arrived a sceptic. In person, in the new shade Ferrari picked for India, the Luce is a far more pleasant thing than its photographs. Di Silvestre, it turns out, hears that a lot.

We sat down after the media conference to talk about emotion, numbers, Lewis Hamilton and why India is ready for Ferrari's next chapter.

What is your first memory of Ferrari?

I'd summarise it as emotion before product. My first touchpoint with Ferrari was not a product or a specific technology. It was the emotion of the brand. That is the strength of Ferrari: it makes people fully engaged. Today, as Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer, I feel the responsibility not only to keep the dream I had, but to keep that dream alive for others.

You've dealt with a lot of numbers in your previous roles, but Ferrari isn't only about numbers. How do you strike that balance?

Again, I'd summarise it in three words: value over volume. Numbers are really important, because a business needs to be data-driven to be sustainable, and business decisions must be supported by data. But at Ferrari, true success cannot be measured by volume alone. Our ambition is to create long-term relationships with our existing clients and with new ones, and the numbers are the result of that. So there is no conflict between data and the purpose of our business.

Tell me about the call from Maranello. Where were you, and how long did it take you to say yes?

I understood that something important was happening in my life. When Ferrari calls you, you have to take the phone. This is not only a career step. It is the privilege of contributing to the next chapter of Ferrari, and I feel that responsibility. This is not a job. This is a lifestyle, and what I have experienced since I joined three months ago is incredible.

The Luce had divided the audience before you joined. How do you sell a car that has split even the Ferrari faithful?

Luce is something special because it is an addition to the Ferrari line-up. It is the concrete proof that innovation at Ferrari is both present and future. It is a disruptive car compared to our standard range, and the purpose is to reach a new audience, clients who probably never thought about Ferrari. So it is an addition in design, an addition in technology and an addition in the community we want to bring home. Luce is extraordinary because, first, it is a Ferrari, and second, it is electric. It carries every Ferrari attribute: emotion, driving experience, innovation. All the ingredients are there. They are just prepared in a different manner, because we want to conquer a new cluster of clients.

What is your ambition with the Luce in India?

Exactly that. For us, India is not only a market where we want to grow our business. It is a country for cultural connections. The entrepreneurial spirit is evident, along with the energy, the culture, the passion for the product, the understanding of modern luxury and a strong desire for individuality and personalisation. It is difficult to find all these ingredients in one country. That is what India represents to us. This is a long-term journey that we started some years ago, and Luce is part of it, because it will help us meet new clients and make Ferrari desirable for a new generation.

Can you share any numbers on how many Luces India can expect?

We are already in the launch phase. The car was unveiled globally in Rome last May, and now we are unveiling it across all our markets. Today we did it in India for the first time, with a livery and configuration that are really amazing. This new green with the new wheels is amazing. In person, it feels like a different car from what you see in a picture, in the newspaper or in digital communication. Now we are preparing the third step, which is the driving experience. Production is going to start, and then each market will receive demo cars so that clients can drive it. Some of them have already signed the contract. But it is really important for us that our clients drive the car, to understand what Luce is capable of doing.

This is also Universo Ferrari's first time in India. How would you introduce it to someone who has never experienced it?

Universo Ferrari is not advertising. It is the Ferrari world, a clear declaration of what Ferrari can do. We are not only sports cars. Racing is our origin, so here you find our Formula 1 car and our endurance programme with the 499P. Then there is the sports car line-up, from the Amalfi to the F80. In racing you can also see Hypersail, our boat, which is going to fly very soon. And Ferrari is always lifestyle. Bringing all these souls together is something unique. It gives you a glimpse of what Ferrari consists of: innovation, craftsmanship and Italian style. That is the purpose of Universo Ferrari.

Paint me a picture of the Indian Ferrari client. What age bracket, what source of wealth?

The profile here is really qualitative, because we have a deeply passionate community. They are passionate not only about the products, which they know very well, but about the brand. They are very sophisticated clients, with a strong desire for personalisation and individuality, and they are internationally connected. Last August I was at Pebble Beach and had the opportunity to meet Indian clients there. The Indian clientele is truly international. That is its peculiarity.

You mentioned personalisation as a priority for Indian clients. Beyond the Delhi and Varanasi cars we saw, what does India-specific customisation look like?

Personalisation is one of the most distinctive factors at Ferrari. We want each customer to have a truly unique Ferrari. That is why we started this project, which we are really proud of, with the talented students of the National Institute of Design. They worked with the style team in Maranello and created ten digital configurations: five Ferrari 12Cilindri and five Ferrari Purosangue. Among them is a Purosangue tailor-made for Delhi, to celebrate the elegance of the capital, and a 12Cilindri dedicated to Varanasi. Forgive my pronunciation.

It's perfect.

It celebrates the character of the city. This project shows our approach to India: bringing together the creativity of India and the craftsmanship of Ferrari. We didn't want to show a different Ferrari here. Ferrari is one. We wanted to enrich it with a special local touch, and India has all the conditions for that. We are very honoured to have done this together, also because the cars are beautiful. It is our message to the Indian market that we want to reward the talented designers here.

What else can Indian customers expect from Ferrari?

I believe they expect Ferrari to establish a proper, professional organisation in India. We are working hard to develop a state-of-the-art dealer network. By the end of 2026 we will appoint two new dealers: one in Chennai, in the south, with KUN Group, and one in Ahmedabad with Infinity. Our footprint will then be four partners with five dealerships. But it is not only about quantity. Quality matters. With these partners we want to be closer to our customers, and we want partners who are not only distributors but co-creators of the Ferrari story. That means a huge sense of responsibility: to improve our understanding of the market and of what Indian clients expect from us, to exceed their expectations and, many times, to surprise them. I believe it is time to do this, and I am convinced that Indian customers, including the potential ones, expect it from us.

Talking of surprises, would you consider bringing Lewis and Charles to India? Ferrari, and Lewis especially, have a huge following here, and our readers would love to know.

That is a really good question. I take it not only as a question but as feedback, and I'm taking it home. In the meantime, we brought our heroes' Formula 1 car here. That is the first step. In the future, yes, we will work towards it.

Five years from now, how do you see Ferrari and India shaping each other?

Five years from now, I expect to see an even larger community in India, still passionate about the brand and the products. I would really like Ferrari to become part of Indian culture, because Indian culture is something special. And the other way round, I would like India to contribute further to the Ferrari culture and the Ferrari market, with projects beyond the Tailor Made one we have just done. This is a win-win partnership, a long journey together. Not only for business reasons, but to create something special that makes the difference.