McLaren CEO looks to follow Ferrari's blueprint for success — but with 'no arrogance'

CARMEL, Calif. — McLaren CEO Michael Leiters believes that the British luxury supercar maker can succeed much like Ferrari has — but in a somewhat different way.

“We have one element in our brand, and it’s belonging,” Leiters, who has been at the helm of McLaren for two years after eight years as Ferrari’s CTO, said in an interview with Yahoo Finance during Monterey Car Week. “We want to have people here. … We speak with everybody — no arrogance.”

That could be read as a not-so-veiled swipe at Ferrari, given that the Italian luxury sports car manufacturer is notorious for secrecy, invite-only events, and only selling new vehicles to current or favored customers.

At the same time, McLaren is following a formula Ferrari uses to huge success: Make distinctive cars and sell fewer of them at higher prices to create scarcity and pricing power.

“We don’t want to copy anybody, not Ferrari, not Lamborghini or Porsche — nobody,” he said. “The achievement the company has done on the brand and on the product is fantastic. We have to build on that and to develop that to attract more prospects and more customers to our business.”

‘We don’t want to always supply the market’

McLaren has suffered from a slowdown in sales recently, in addition to a glut of cars pushed out in past years depressing residual, or used, prices in the secondary market. Leiters said the company, which as of March is wholly owned by the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain, is now more focused more on the new Artura hybrid (starting at $238,000) and its 750S supercar (starting at $332,000).

“I think the most important thing is that we are now more, let me say, customer- and product-oriented,” Leiters said. “We don’t want to always supply the market” — meaning McLaren aims to give the market just under what it needs to spur demand.

“We are very sensitive to that; we are building up our residual values. Residuals have come have come back significantly,” Leiters said. “Relative to other brands, we are recovering.”

McLaren sold 5,000 cars globally in 2019. This year the figure is expected to be about 3,500.

Leiters highlighted that the Artura sports car adds significant performance with very little added weight, something crucial in the supercar business. Leiters also said that McLaren may also introduce an SUV, or “shared performance vehicle” as he calls it, that could broaden its customer base.

Formula One success

Leiters added that the spirit of openness is also embraced by McLaren’s Formula One race team, which he says is the “most liked” team on the grid.

The McLaren F1 team is in the midst of a resurgence, winning on track and beating Ferrari in recent months. Ferrari, which was originally created for racing nearly 80 years ago (and started selling road cars to fund the race team), has been smarting from a series of disappointing performances on the track. The concurrent prominence of F1 in the US has helped boost McLaren in its most important sales region.

Nonetheless, Ferrari keeps selling its luxury sports cars — at envious margins to boot — and has been a darling of the automotive investment world.