Apple is now run by a Porsche guy

Apple is now being run by a Porsche-driving amateur racer. Yes, seriously.

John Ternus formally became Apple’s chief executive on September 1, 2026, replacing Tim Cook after 15 years in the top job.

Mr Cook has stepped down as CEO, but he hasn't left Apple. He's moved into the role of executive chairman and will continue assisting with certain parts of the business, including Apple’s engagement with policymakers around the world. Mr Ternus has also joined the company’s board of directors.

“John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor,” Mr Cook said when announcing the succession plan.

Mr Ternus isn't an outsider brought in to shake Apple up. He joined its product design team in 2001, became vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013 and joined the executive leadership team as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2021.

Apple credits him with playing an instrumental role in the introduction of the iPad and AirPods, as well as overseeing hardware engineering across multiple generations of the iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch.

Before Apple, he worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. In other words, Apple’s new CEO is very much an engineer rather than simply a finance or operations executive.

More relevant to us, however, is what John Ternus does when he's not signing off the next iPhone.

At the Miami Grand Prix in May, Apple services boss Eddy Cue told Reuters: “John actually drives a Porsche and does amateur racing.”

Mr Cue said Mr Ternus would otherwise have attended the Formula 1 race but was at Laguna Seca instead. He described the incoming CEO as a major F1 fan and said his appointment would strengthen Apple’s relationship with the championship.

That relationship is already substantial. Apple TV became the exclusive US broadcaster of Formula 1 this year, taking over from ESPN and showing all 24 rounds of the 2026 season. We remain hopeful that will also happen in Australia so we can stop waiting for Kayo to load!

According to The Wall Street Journal, Mr Ternus regularly takes his Porsche to Laguna Seca and has recorded lap times of less than one minute and 40 seconds, which is pretty decent!

Mr Ternus is understood to own one of Porsche’s modern 935 track cars and is a regular participant in Laguna Seca track days. Porsche produced just 77 examples of the modern 935, which is based on the 911 GT2 RS and powered by a 515kW 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six.

It weighs approximately 1380kg and is officially described as a single-seat, non-homologated race car.

Apple and Porsche’s modern relationship goes well beyond a retro racing livery. In 2019, the original Taycan became the first vehicle with fully integrated Apple Music, rather than simply accessing it through conventional Apple CarPlay.

Porsche then became the first automaker to integrate vehicle functions within an application in CarPlay in 2023. Depending on the vehicle, owners could use the My Porsche application to adjust audio profiles, radio stations, climate control and ambient lighting without leaving the CarPlay interface.

The two companies also developed a Porsche Race Engineer application for Apple Vision Pro. It allowed engineers to monitor information including speed, braking, track conditions, vehicle position and live video in real time.

Porsche used the system in 2024 when the Taycan Turbo GT established a US electric vehicle (EV) record at Laguna Seca.

If you're wondering if putting a Porsche-loving engineer in charge of Apple means the Apple Car is suddenly coming back, the answer is most probably no, at least not based on any verified information.

Apple reportedly cancelled its decade-long electric and autonomous vehicle development effort, internally known as Project Titan, in February 2024. Some employees were moved to Apple’s artificial intelligence division, although Apple itself declined to comment publicly on the decision. Project Titan is reportedly what found itself reborn as the Ferrari Luce.

Mr Cook’s departure from the CEO role nevertheless marks one of the most significant leadership changes in the technology industry. Apple says its market capitalisation grew from approximately US$350 billion when Mr Cook became CEO in 2011 to US$4 trillion, while annual revenue increased from US$108 billion to more than US$416 billion in the 2025 financial year.

During his tenure, the active installed base of Apple devices grew to more than 2.5 billion, and the company introduced products and services including the Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Vision Pro, Apple Pay, Apple Music and Apple TV.

For a company partly funded by the sale of a Volkswagen and connected with Porsche motorsport almost from the beginning, putting a Porsche-driving mechanical engineer in the top job is perhaps not as strange as it first sounds.

MORE: Fully autonomous driving is dead: the Apple Car story