The old track of Nürburgring Nordschleife is a special place for the world of motorsport, a unique circuit that has become the cathedral of world motorsport due to its narrow, winding and changing layout. Very present in popular culture and in the world of competition, the major brands also fight to beat the stopwatch of their rivals on the Nürburgring track, in an operation that has become a major challenge for the engineering teams of the major brands. For example, twelve years ago the Seat Cupra León (the Cupra division had not yet separated from Seat) became the fastest front-wheel drive car in the world at Nürburgring, which prepared the immediate reaction of Renault, which spent a lot of money on an evolution of the Mégane RS capable of beating the Catalan compact in the old green hell of Nürburgring. 

In 1998, the then CEO of the Volkswagen group, the German Ferdinand Piëch, decided to buy the Bugatti brand to integrate it into the Volkswagen group under the umbrella of the Porsche subsidiary. Piëch's idea was to buy the brand to manufacture the fastest and most powerful car ever made and he set about the project of the Bugatti Veyron, the first combustion car to exceed 1,001 hp of power and with a top speed of over 400 km/h. In 2016, Bugatti went a step further with the Chiron, an even more beastly and exclusive model, of which it has made exclusive limited series sold at seven-figure prices. However, the Bugatti brand has been far from profitable for several years, despite selling editions of its models that became the most expensive production car in history at the time, as in the case of the Chiron La Voiture Noire, a special unit sold for a final price of over eleven million euros. Despite selling cars at astronomical prices, Bugatti's development, design, production, and marketing costs were higher than the income obtained, and the brand's existence within the Volkswagen group was only explained by a matter of prestige.Since 2021 and for the last five years, the Volkswagen Group has managed Bugatti through its high-performance subsidiary Porsche and an industrial agreement with the Croatian brand Rimac. Rimac is an electric car manufacturer that controls 55% of Bugatti, while Porsche controlled the remaining 45%. However, in turn, the Volkswagen Group controlled 20% of Rimac's shareholding, thus guaranteeing its decision-making power over Bugatti and leveraging the know-how and electric technologies of the Rimac brand, specialized in high-power electric sports cars.An advertised sale

This week Porsche has confirmed the sale of its 45% stake in Bugatti and 20% in Rimac to the North American investment fund HOF Capital, based in New York, for an undisclosed amount. This is due to Porsche's complicated financial situation (a few days ago it announced that it would have to lay off 500 more employees in Germany to balance its accounts), which has led to the sale of its stake in Bugatti when the first serious offer appeared on the brand's management's table.Porsche's electrification strategy has been a mixed success for the German brand, as it has invested heavily in its electric models, such as the Taycan or the new Macan. However, the brand's customers have not yet decided to make the leap to electrification, which has led to a repositioning of the brand's roadmap, which has just announced that it will develop a Macan with a gasoline engine, in a clear move aimed at regaining presence and sales volume in its segment.

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Porsche is the crown jewel of the Volkswagen Group. The brand, founded in Stuttgart by Ferdinand Porsche, has historically been the most profitable and highest-earning within the Volkswagen Group, especially since 2000, with the introduction of models like the Cayenne and Cayman, cars that went beyond the nine, the flagship product of the German brand.

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When Ferdinand Porsche presented The first 911 at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show, no one would have imagined that, decades later, the name that has thrilled some of the world's most famous circuits would appear associated with drones, satellites, and cybersecurity. The unmistakable silhouette of the 911, with its round headlights and drooping tail, has become an icon of the 20th century: a symbol of freedom on the motorway, of victories at Le Mans, and of German industrial pride. perhaps now somewhat in decline.

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