A Global Award for Innovation, Not Horsepower
Automobili Lamborghini has introduced the “Future FAB. Innovation & Transformation Award,” a global competition targeting women under 30 who bring original projects in three categories: Technology, Sustainability, and Art. Applications opened June 14 and run through October 14, 2019, with results expected in December. The initiative extends directly from Lamborghini’s Female Advisory Board (FAB), the roughly 200-member international network of influential women the company established in 2018.
The structure is straightforward. Applicants submit projects in one of the three categories. A mixed jury of Lamborghini Management Board members and selected FAB women evaluates entries on three criteria: positive social impact, innovation content, and feasibility. Winners receive formal recognition, candidacy for the FAB network itself, and an in-house educational experience at Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata Bolognese headquarters. Lamborghini also says it may invest in and develop the winning project it considers most aligned with its brand values.
For a company whose public identity revolves around V12 engines and carbon fiber, dedicating institutional resources to a talent competition in art, environmental sustainability, and technology signals a deliberate widening of what the Lamborghini brand is willing to claim as its territory. That widening is not accidental. It reflects a company in the middle of a demographic transformation, and the Future FAB Award is one of the clearest signs yet that Sant’Agata Bolognese intends to shape the next generation of luxury consumers rather than wait for them to arrive.
Why a Supercar Maker Cares About Sustainability Projects and Art Installations
The instinctive reaction from some enthusiasts will be skepticism: what does an award for young women’s sustainability research or art installations have to do with building supercars? The honest answer is that Lamborghini’s leadership clearly views this as a brand-equity play, not a product development exercise.
Katia Bassi, Lamborghini’s Chief Marketing Officer and, according to one report, the first woman to join the company’s Management Board, framed the award explicitly as an extension of the company’s evolution. She pointed to the FAB as a mechanism that provides market intelligence on luxury trends and purchasing behavior while also positioning Lamborghini as a company that invests in future leaders. Bassi noted that the Urus alone brought a third model line, doubled production, generated 700 new hires, and attracted a customer base of which over 70% were new to the brand. That kind of demographic shift demands a different kind of outreach.
The three award categories map loosely onto areas where Lamborghini already operates or aspires to lead. Technology connects to the company’s ongoing transition toward hybrid powertrains. Sustainability aligns with its factory carbon-neutrality efforts. Art and design reflect the brand’s deep investment in visual identity. The categories are broad enough to attract a wide range of applicants, yet specific enough to generate projects Lamborghini could plausibly absorb or champion.
The reserved right to invest in winning projects is the detail worth watching. If Lamborghini actually funds a sustainability or technology project that emerges from this competition, the award moves from marketing exercise to genuine R&D scouting. If it remains a mentorship program with no downstream investment, the strategic value is softer: brand affinity with a younger, more diverse luxury audience.
The FAB Network: Lamborghini’s Quiet Influence Machine
The Female Advisory Board, which serves as the institutional backbone of this award, is itself worth examining. Founded in 2018, the FAB comprises approximately 200 women selected from business, technology, culture, and sport across multiple continents. In its first year, the board convened in Singapore, Los Angeles, Sydney, Dubai, Tokyo, London, New York, Macau, Bangkok, and Milan. A private web portal supports ongoing virtual dialogue between meetings.
Silvia Saliti, Head of Marketing and PR for Lamborghini’s APAC region, cited research suggesting women influence 85% of car purchases. That statistic, even if directional rather than precise, explains why a company selling $200,000-plus vehicles would build an advisory network specifically around female perspectives. The FAB originated, according to one report, from informal conversations about the untapped potential of women as supercar buyers.
The first 2019 FAB meeting took place in May at Lamborghini’s headquarters in Sant’Agata Bolognese, where members toured the factory and exchanged ideas on innovation and what Lamborghini describes as “informal luxury.” Lamborghini also launched “FAB Talks,” a podcast series featuring eight transformational stories from board members, available on the future.fab.lamborghini website and major podcast platforms.
What makes the FAB unusual in the supercar world is its scale and formality. Plenty of luxury brands host client events and advisory dinners. Building a named, 200-member international board with its own digital infrastructure and now a formal awards program attached to it represents a level of institutional commitment that goes well beyond a seasonal marketing campaign. The Future FAB Award, in this context, is not a standalone gesture. It is the outward-facing tip of an influence network Lamborghini has been quietly assembling for over a year.
A group of women pose in front of a Lamborghini silhouette at an event, showcasing their participation and engagement. Image: Automobili Lamborghini.
How Lamborghini’s Approach Compares to Its Rivals
Look across the supercar landscape and you will find surprisingly little that directly parallels what Lamborghini is doing here. Ferrari operates its own philanthropic and cultural programs, but these tend to center on motorsport heritage, the Ferrari Museum, and the Maranello community rather than a structured talent-development pipeline for young women in technology or sustainability. Porsche invests heavily in sustainability communications and has its own diversity initiatives within the VW Group framework, but nothing quite as outward-facing as a named, jury-judged global award program tied to an ongoing advisory board.
McLaren and Aston Martin run educational partnerships and STEM outreach, but these are typically aimed at engineering recruitment rather than building a branded community of external advisors who feed back into marketing strategy. The distinction matters. Lamborghini’s FAB and Future FAB Award are not recruiting programs. They are influence networks designed to shape how the brand is perceived by a demographic that historically has not been the core supercar buyer but increasingly controls luxury spending.
The competitive advantage, if one materializes, will not show up in lap times or quarter-mile figures. It will show up in brand consideration data among affluent women under 40, a segment every luxury automaker wants but few have built dedicated infrastructure to reach.
From the Urus Effect to Future Brand Loyalty
The connection between the Urus and the Future FAB Award is more direct than it might appear. Katia Bassi has stated that the Urus was designed with female buyers in mind, and one report indicates the Super SUV has introduced more women to the Lamborghini brand than any other model in the company’s history. When over 70% of Urus buyers are new to Lamborghini, the company faces a strategic question: how do you retain and deepen loyalty among customers who arrived through a very different entry point than the traditional V12 enthusiast?
The FAB and Future FAB Award represent one answer. By building a community around shared values rather than shared garage contents, Lamborghini creates touchpoints that do not require a customer to already own a Huracan or Aventador. A 28-year-old researcher working on battery technology or a young architect creating art installations may not be in the market for a supercar today. Lamborghini is betting that associating the brand with their ambitions now pays dividends when their purchasing power catches up.
This is a long game, and Lamborghini appears willing to play it. The jury composition reinforces the seriousness: CTO Maurizio Reggiani judges the Technology category, CFO Paolo Poma and CMO Ranieri Niccoli sit on the Sustainability panel, and Bassi herself evaluates Art entries alongside Lamborghini’s Chief Human Capital Officer Umberto Tossini. These are not junior marketing managers running a side project. The Management Board is directly involved in selecting winners, which tells you how seriously Sant’Agata Bolognese takes the initiative’s potential to reshape the brand’s future audience.
What the Award Actually Delivers to Winners
The prize package deserves scrutiny because it reveals what Lamborghini values in this program. Winners receive formal recognition endorsing their professional potential, candidacy for the FAB network (which means access to 200 influential women across industries), and an in-house educational experience at Lamborghini headquarters. Lamborghini says this experience will develop the skills needed to build a complete business case in support of the winning project, drawing on management know-how and the FAB network.
The most interesting element is the potential investment clause. Lamborghini reserves the right to invest in and develop the project it considers most relevant and consistent with its brand values. That language is deliberately open-ended. It does not guarantee funding, and Lamborghini has not disclosed a budget or investment framework. But the option itself distinguishes this from a typical corporate award that offers a trophy and a handshake.
For prospective applicants, the practical takeaway is clear: the award offers mentorship, network access, and visibility within a globally recognized luxury brand. The investment possibility adds an entrepreneurial dimension, but applicants should treat it as a bonus rather than a certainty. The real value lies in the FAB network itself and the credibility that comes with a Lamborghini-endorsed project.
Projects are judged on three pillars: positive social impact, innovation, and feasibility. That last criterion is worth emphasizing. Lamborghini is not looking for theoretical moonshots. They want projects that can be realized, which suggests the company is genuinely evaluating commercial or practical potential alongside aspirational vision.
The Bigger Picture for Lamborghini Enthusiasts
For readers who follow Lamborghini primarily for its cars, the Future FAB Award might seem peripheral. It is worth considering, though, what this kind of initiative signals about where the brand is headed. Lamborghini in 2019 is a company managing simultaneous transformations: the Urus has redefined its production volume and customer demographics, hybrid technology is on the horizon, and the brand is actively cultivating audiences that previous generations of Lamborghini leadership would never have prioritized.
The FAB and its associated award program represent the cultural arm of that transformation. They do not affect the next Aventador successor’s power output or the Huracan’s lap time. They affect who considers Lamborghini a brand worth caring about, and that, over a decade, shapes everything from dealer network investments to the design language of future models.
Whether Lamborghini follows through on the investment clause, whether the award attracts projects of genuine caliber, and whether the FAB network produces measurable brand loyalty among a new demographic are all open questions. The company has not disclosed metrics for success or committed to a multi-year timeline for the award. What it has done is build a formal structure, staffed it with senior leadership, and attached its name to an initiative that no direct competitor currently matches in scope.
For a brand built on the legend of Ferruccio Lamborghini’s refusal to accept conventional wisdom about what a car company should be, investing in young women’s innovation projects outside the automotive sphere is, at minimum, consistent with the founding ethos. The question is whether the execution matches the ambition.
