Mate Rimac sat at a table, facing a camera. To his right was Oliver Blume, the CEO of Porsche, and to his left its finance chief Lutz Meschke. They were about to host a video conference to announce the deal to merge Bugatti, for which Porsche has responsibility within the vast Volkswagen Group, with Mate's start-up hypercar maker. A small group of invited journalists from the business and luxury media began to join the call, among them the Financial Times, Bloomberg and Robb Report. Blume and Meschke were dressed in sober business attire, as you'd expect of German C-suite executives making a major announcement to the world's press, and they sat stiff and upright. But as the 33 year old Mate relaxed into his chair his sneakers emerged from beneath the table, followed by a pair of bare legs. The wunderkind of the hypercar world was about to be handed control of one of its most fabled marques, and he'd chosen to wear shorts for the occasion.

Mate doubtless meant no disrespect, but his casual dress served as useful visual shorthand for a transfer of power extraordinary even by the turbulent standards of the supercar industry. Control of arguably the world's most prestigious marque, founded 112 years ago by one of the great automotive auteurs and maker of some the most beautiful, powerful cars ever to grace the road was passing from Europe's largest manufacturing company to a start-up founded in a tiny new nation 12 years ago by someone barely out of his teens. Later that evening there would be a glossy event live-streamed from the spectacular 14th century Lovrijenac fortress perched high over beautiful, ancient Dubrovnik and the opal waters of Croatia's Adriatic coast. Mate leapt on stage to acknowledge the significance of what was happening and the responsibility he now bears. By now he was wearing a well-cut suit, but had kept the sneakers.