Why would Fiat want to loss the goodwill that Ferrari represents, they’ve owned Ferrari since 1969 (and that leads back to the convoluted Ford vs Fiat war to buy Ferrari, a tale for another day)? Possibly Ferrari’s heritage – and continuing worth – are too tightly intertwined with Formula 1; and it’s possible that FCA has read the handwriting on the wall, that F1 is about to go through a stretch in the wilderness. And with declining public interest in F1 and a resulting loss of revenue, that is not offset with declining costs, maybe FCA decided now was as good a time as any to extract maximum value from the brand.