Meet Apple’s new CEO, the Porsche-driving engineer
Apple has a new CEO, and unlike most people who inherit one of the biggest jobs in technology, John Ternus apparently knows his way around a racetrack too. Ternus officially took over from Tim Cook on September 1 after 25 years at Apple, having most recently run the company’s hardware engineering division. He has been involved with products ranging from the iPad and AirPods to the Mac, Apple Watch and iPhone, and his mechanical engineering background makes him a fitting person to inherit a company obsessed with making physical objects feel impossibly polished.
Apple
But outside Cupertino, Ternus has a rather more analog hobby. According to the Wall Street Journal, he takes his Porsche racing at Laguna Seca, where he reportedly manages laps below 1:40, respectable times for an amateur. It also suggests that the man responsible for Apple’s next generation of hardware appreciates precision in more than just aluminum and glass.
Tim Cook Liked Porsches Too, But Ternus Takes It Further
Ternus isn’t the first Apple CEO with a taste for German sports cars. Tim Cook was also associated with Porsche, including a first-generation Boxster he reportedly owned early in his Apple career. Ternus appears to be taking the enthusiasm considerably further. He’s not merely a Porsche owner or someone who occasionally enjoys a spirited drive. He’s an active amateur racer who actually takes his car to one of America’s most demanding circuits. The exact Porsche Ternus drives has not been publicly identified, which somehow makes the story even more intriguing.
Ternus is also a genuine motorsport fan, possibly even an iRacing subscriber. Apple services chief Eddy Cue told Sports Business Journal that Ternus is a “huge, huge fan” of Formula 1 and suggested he could attend even more races than Cook. In fact, when Ternus could have been at the 2026 Miami Grand Prix, he was instead at Laguna Seca.
Apple And Porsche Already Have History
Porsche
This year, Porsche and Apple revived one of the more unusual chapters in their shared history with special Porsche 963 race cars wearing an Apple Computer-inspired livery at Laguna Seca. The design paid tribute to a Porsche 935 K3 that carried Apple colors at Le Mans in 1980, while celebrating Apple’s 50th anniversary and Porsche Motorsport’s 75th.
So Apple’s new CEO isn’t just taking charge of a company that already has deep ties to automakers and an increasingly serious relationship with motorsport. He’s personally a Porsche racer who spends his weekends at the same racetrack where the two brands recently celebrated their shared history. And with Apple now holding the exclusive US Formula 1 broadcast rights, having a CEO who does trackdays himself might turn out to be rather useful. If this does go deeper with Porsche, let’s just hope it turns out better than Apple’s last unofficial “tryst” with Ferrari, because we all know how that worked out.
