Get a Ferrari and do what you want with it. Sure but with some limitations. No blacklist, just rules. Relationships are linked by so-called “relationships”. The Maranello-based company, for example, does not sell a limited edition model (SP1 or SP2) to the first one who is able to pay for it. No, it doesn’t work like that. You must have bought at least a certain number of Ferraris and not have resold them within a few months. If you are even a collector it is more likely that you will move up in the list. Because in that case the list is there.
In short, Justin Bieber who allegedly mistreated his Ferrari, abandoning it on the street, repainting it with non-traditional colors and then putting it up for auction, would have no chance of entering the small number of buyers of the collector’s item. This is how it works at Ferrari. Nothing more, nothing less.
They defend the prestige and exclusivity of the brand. They protect the history of the team. Especially that one. Try taking an old Ferrari to the Classic department in Maranello to have it completely restored and you will notice it. Nobody will satisfy you if you ask to repaint it shocking pink. Or to transform the seats, perhaps adding those of a racing car. We don’t even talk about it, only original pieces. Ferrari colors only.
Even if it is said that a very rich Arab collector wanted to restore some Ferraris with the only clause of the choice of color. In short, he was willing to pay the maximum but he had to choose the color. Probably violet or some shade like that. Obviously he received some buckets that seemed imperative. Then, at a certain point when the Ferraris have become more than ten (some say even thirty), they say that the restoration has started anyway. Obviously there is no trace of all this. Just like the Ferrari blacklist.
First of all the so-called tuning, that is the modification of a vehicle with respect to the production standards of series in order to adapt it to one’s tastes: legend has it that in the eighties it was Enzo Ferrari who contacted the boss of Koenig, a well-known German tuner, ordering him to remove the Prancing horse from those that he no longer considered to be true Ferraris. Obviously, there are no confirmations, but the army of fans of the Red is largely aligned with this diktat.
To defend the prestige of the brand, it seems that in Maranello they can’t stand those who buy a car just to show it off on social networks or – even worse – to use it for advertising purposes without a pre-agreement with the parent company. In short, Ferrari must be treated well, because not respecting the car is equivalent to not respecting the history of a legendary Scuderia. And popularity and money in the bank don’t matter: if you break these rules, you end up blacklisted.
Who are the VIPs in the sights of the Cavallino is highly confidential information. But in recent years some hypotheses have been put forward: the rapper 50 Cent, for example, who in April 2020 publicly complained about a failure of his Ferrari 488, showing on Instagram the tow truck that takes it away. Even colleague Tyga would not be welcomed, considering that – as TMZ said – in 2016 he missed the payment of some installments of the leasing of his 488 GTB.
It seems, in fact, that at the time of purchase the customer must give his consent to some clauses and accept a sort of company code of ethics. Among the forbidden attitudes there are all Bieber’s “mistakes”: it is forbidden to change the color of the car and it is not possible to get rid of it by auctioning it. Not to mention forgetting it in the parking lot: definitely unacceptable to the company. That he has decided to act accordingly.