Lambo boss to head Audi Quattro

Long-term Lamborghini president Stephan Winkelmann will leave the company early next year to head up Audi’s go-fast Quattro GmbH division.

The 51-year-old Roman native has headed Lamborghini since 2005, and will replace current head, the 62-year-old Heinz Peter Hollerweger.

Italian media have locked in Ferrari’s former Formula 1 team principal, Stefano Domenicali, as Lamborghini’s new president, in a move expected to take place early next year.

Senior Audi officials are expected to announce the move to the Lamborghini board during a regularly scheduled meeting in Ingolstadt next Friday.

Winkelmann is moving to a whole new level of complexity after steering Lamborghini through the successes of the Gallardo, the Global Financial Crisis, the Modena earthquake crisis and the birth of both the Aventador and the Hurucan.

He has also been instrumental in pushing for a third model line for the company, which will finally become a reality with next year’s Urus SUV.

Previously, he has floated various third-model concept cars, including the 2008 four-door Estoque sedan, the 2012 Urus and the electric hybrid Asterion from 2014. He was also in charge for concepts like the 2006 Miura and the 2013 Egoista, and drove the ultra-exclusive Reventon supercar.

Winkelmann is in for a whole new level of complexity at Quattro, with the brand responsible for the RS 3, RS 4, RS 6, RS 7 and R8 models, though it is not responsible for its sales and distribution channels.

Winkelmann joined Lamborghini after a youth spent as a lieutenant in the German paratroopers, studying in Rome and Munich and working for both Mercedes-Benz and Fiat.

The well-liked Domenicali is a year younger than the man he replaces and headed Ferrari’s F1 team from 2008 until 2014. Audi had tried to poach him in 2012 and again in 2013, and he has long been earmarked as the man to take the four rings back to F1 for the first time since before WWII.

However, the post-Volkswagen Dieselgate environment (and the sport’s shrinking popularity) has ruled F1 out for now. Insiders, too, have insisted that Domenicali was always looked at as a potential Lamborghini boss, rather than a pure motorsports man, even though he’d never managed a retail operation and joined Ferrari’s race team straight out of Bologna University.

It is not clear where Hollerweger will end up. Widely popular and hugely respected, the youthful 62-year-old engineer was appointed by now-retired Audi development boss Ulrich Hackenberg early in 2014.