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The story of Enzo Ferrari

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THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – ENZO FERRARI DRIVER:RIVAL OF VARZI AND NUVOLARI

“Pilots, what people!… Masters of calculation, champions of cynicism, champions of inconsideration or just men, who seek the meaning of their lives in the exalting chill of victory?”
Words from Enzo Ferrari, who, before becoming the Ferrari we all know, was also a driver. His racing debut was in 1919, with the Milanese firm CMN at Parma-Poggio de Berceto, which gave the twenty-something Ferrari the 11th place in the standings. But it was only the beginning of his adventure in the world of competitions.

“Into this fascinating and dazzling universe, governed by narrow but gentlemanly rules, I entered in 1919”, writes Ferrari in the same book “Pilots, what a people!”… “I had little money in my pocket and even less in the bank, a lot of will and great desire to achieve it”.

He tried again at the Targa Florio, always in 1919: he came ninth, after a race compromised by problems and inexperience. “A small triumph”, defined it by Ferrari himself. The following year he briefly ran an Isotta Fraschini 4500 Grand Prix 1914 ,and then he went to Alfa: with a 20/40 bibloc he came second in the Targa Florio.

Between 1921 and 1924 Ferrari always competed with the Alfas. Those were the years of Giuseppe Campari, Gastone Brilli-Peri, Antonio Ascari. His racing career continued. -aequo in the Alpine Cup of the same year. He was first at the Ravenna circuit in 1923 and 1924. In that last year Ferrari achieved the victory that he would remember with greater satisfaction: that of the Acerbo Cup in Pescara, with an Alfa Romeo RL, a victory that brought him definitively to notoriety, because he managed to beat the very strong Mercedes, a victory that gave him the title of Cavaliere.

A year earlier Ferrari had had one of the most important meetings of his life: at the Savio circuit he was introduced to the Baracca counts, the parents of Francesco, the ace of aces of Italian aviation. Countess Paolina entrusted the Cavallino Rampant that decorated his son’s plane, shot down over the Montello. To explain what kind of pilot Ferrari was, as always, he does not entrust the task to others: “I don’t think I did badly as a racer,” he writes. I can say that, if I insisted, I would have become a great driver. Even then I had doubts. A reasonable doubt, because I knew that I had a big obstacle in myself: I drove the car respecting it”.

After a break that lasted from 1924 to 1927, Ferrari returned to racing. He obtained less relevant results in races that led him to face champions of the caliber of Nuvolari and Varzi. And sometimes he even managed to win them. His most beautiful race was precisely one of the last: the Circuit of the Three Provinces of 1931, in which he qualified second after an exciting duel with the emerging champion: Nuvolari.
The future Nivola, the flying mantovano, at the end of the race said: “To beat you you forced me to work like I had never done before.” It was probably the best compliment that Ferrari had received in the course of his career as a driver. December 1929, the Scudería Ferrari was born, which would absorb him more and more in his role as organizer.

Later, the final retirement, a decision surely suffered, that Enzo Ferrari himself remembered fifty years later:

“I made the decision to stop competing in January 1932, when my son Dino was born.”

Ferrari kept to the letter the promise made to himself: a habit that never left him. And he headed towards his own myth.

THE HISTORY OF ENZO FERRARI – ENZO FERRARI:FROM PILOT TO DIRECTOR, THE FERRARI SCHOOL IS BORN.

A CLEAR DESTINY. Very soon it became clear to everyone, including the interested party, that Enzo Ferrari’s destiny was not going to be to drive racing cars. Already during his sports activity, Ferrari took positions and positions of responsibility in the racing section of Alfa Romeo. “At Alfa I was not just a driver.” “I immediately felt an almost morbid desire to do something for the car, this creature that I desperately loved.”

Ferrari entered Alfa in 1920. He was a little interested in everything, even in relations with suppliers. When, in 1923, the Alfa P1 did not obtain the expected returns, it was Ferrari itself who was ordered to go to Turin to “steal “some technician of proven value to Fiat, an objective that Enzo fully achieved, convincing Luigi Bazzi and Vittorio Jano to move to Milan, to the Portello. Jano would be the creator of the mythical Alfa P2, a car that gave much glory to the home of the Biscione. Thanks to delicate tasks like this, Ferrari learned the art of knowing men and taking advantage of their weaknesses.

It was in this period that Ferrari laid the foundations to become that great “man agitator”, as he defined himself, who after thirty years was going to conquer the world with his sports sedans and with an impressive succession of victories in the Championship. of the F1 World.

In 1931 Enzo Ferrari raced for the last time, at the Circuit of the Three Provinces (Bologna, Pistoia, Modena) finishing second with Alfa, behind his teammate Tazio Nuvolari.
Three years before, he had founded the Escudería Ferrari, on Trento e Trieste street in Modena, for the Alfa Romeos of private drivers that the company could not attend directly due to lack of time.

It was on December 1, 1929 and the statute included this company name: Sociedad Anónima Escudería Ferrari. The capital was provided by Alfredo Caniato, a hemp merchant, and by Mario Tadini, director of a clothing business. Ferrari took responsibility for the entire organization. The headquarters was established in the Gatti garage in Modena. It was not until well into 1930 that it would move to the famous Liberty building on Calle Trento e Trieste, nº 11, always in Modena.

The initiative immediately pleased Alfa Romeo, who saw the possibility of expanding the number of drivers who raced in top competition with their sports cars. Ferrari then made two master moves: first, it gave Alfa some shares in the Scuderia Ferrari in exchange for support technical; second, thanks to his charisma, he won the favor of some of the best drivers of the time, to the point that in a short time the Scuderia had prepared its own official racing team that had champions of the caliber of Campari, Nuvolari , Varzi and Borzacchini.

The year 1930 did not immediately bring great triumphs to the team. But at the beginning of the summer a two-wheel ace joined the team, Tazio Nuvolari. a single month of activity. It was the best moment of the entire season, which for the Scuderia closed with the participation in 22 tests, with 50 riders registered and 8 outright victories. 1931 was a much more victorious year. In the Thousand Miles the Scuderia entered 10 vehicles, and the second of them qualified second (Campari/Marinoni). This was followed by victories on hill climbs and a double success for Nuvolari in the Ciano Cup and in the Circuit of the Three Provinces.Campari won the Acerbo Cup, and Nuvolari the Consumia Cup.

The Ferrari team began to gain prominence. But it also began to prepare, with its own means, some competition Alfa Romeos.

In the first months of 1932 Count Carlo Felice Trossi replaced Alfredo Caniato, who in turn had bought Tadini’s share. Trossi was also a good driver and opened the season with a win in the Copa Gallenga. But there were other successes: in the Targa Florio with Nuvolari/Borzacchini, in the Messina Cup with Ghersi, in the 24 hours of Spa with Brivio/Siena and in the Acerbo Cup with Nuvolari.
The year 1932 was important for Ferrari, and not only for having many sporting successes: for the first time the cars of his Scuderia wore the Prancing Horse emblem, which the parents of the flying ace Francesco Baracca had given him.

In addition, the Scuderia also began to race motorcycles of the Rudge and Norton brands, few but driven by good drivers such as Taruffi and Aldighetti. The future of Ferrari, however, would be with 4 wheels.

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – THE FERRARI TEAM A SINGLE MAN AGAINST ALL, WILLING AND WINNING:

At the beginning of 1933 Alfa Romeo retired from racing. For Enzo Ferrari, however, this fact did not represent a totally negative event, because it gave him the possibility of facing a new and important experience: this time as head of his own racing team: the Ferrari team.

Alfa Romeo’s expenses in competitions, for the IRI, which had just acquired it, were exorbitant. Ferrari asked to be entrusted with the new and fast P3s, but received a negative response, so he ordered the team’s technicians to enhance the 8C that had triumphed in Monza and in the Thousand Miles in the previous year. The cylinder capacity was increased to 2.6 litres.

Out of prudence and without any scruple towards the Portello house, Ferrari added to its old Alfas a brand new Duesenberg single-seater, with an eight-cylinder, four-liter engine, Probably with this acquisition Ferrari wanted to pressure Alfa Romeo to give it the P3 Enjoy the popularity that a car like that would have among the public. Or, as a last hypothesis, ensure an alternative to victory. But the Duesenberg was a useless expense because none of the three possibilities materialized. The Ferrari team won, but with the Alfa, the old 8C.

Nuvolari immediately triumphed in the first race of 1933, the Tunis GP, repeated in the Thousand Miles and closed the trio of victories in the Bordino circuit in Alexandria. The myth of the “flying Mantuan” was born, and Ferrari took advantage of it, increasing its prestige and its influence in the world of motorsports. But very soon he would receive an unpleasant surprise, colored in French blue and with a name reminiscent of Italy: Bugatti. The Alfa 8Cs were not up to the standard Ettore creatures, that Nuvolari, despite winning the Eifel and the Nimes GP, began to claim the right to which car to race with, a legitimate right, since the Ferrari team was not the racing team of an automobile firm.
Disagreements arose between Tazio and Ferrari, and on July 2 Nuvolari signed an agreement with Ernesto Maserati to run their cars, but always with the colors of the Modena team.

The victories of the “mantuano” came, but the relationship with Ferrari was no longer good. The divorce between the two did not surprise anyone; what is more, the consequences that it would cause would end up favoring Enzo Ferrari. Nuvolari and Borzacchini left, but Alfa, perhaps Fearing that he had lost the best driver of the moment, he agreed to deliver the much-desired P3s to the Ferrari team. In addition, Luigi Fagioli arrived in Modena, where Giuseppe Campari also returned, although the latter would meet his death at the Monza circuit that same year in a accident that also involved the unlucky Borzacchini and the Polish count Czaikowski. Fagioli, in any case, won repeatedly: the season closed with a positive balance.

In 1934 Alfa imposed two drivers on Ferrari: Varzi and Moll. For Ferrari it was the best way to compensate for the loss of Brivio and Fagioli, who went respectively to Bugatti and Mercedes. From the beginning the Alfa P3 of the Ferrari team, technically improved autonomously by the Modenese technicians guided by Luigi Bazzi, they were competitive. Varzi, with his elegant driving style, proposed himself as an alternative to Nuvolari, and public sentiment was divided into two camps, creating a rivalry that was going to pass to history. Ferrari’s concerns, however, did not come from the flying “mantuano”, but from the German single-seaters, which were faster and faster. The P3s won, it is true, but often thanks to technical failures of the adversaries .The Ferrari team entered a difficult moment,made worse by the death of Guy Moll.

In 1935 Nuvolari returned and Ferrari presented a really powerful single-seater: the Bimotore, a “monster” with a 16-cylinder engine. It was developed autonomously in Modena and can be considered the first car signed by Enzo Ferrari. Excessive weight and tire problems they did not allow the Bimotore to gain as much as it could have (its top speed: more than 320 km/h, registered in the Nuvolari record on the Florence-Mar motorway), so Ferrari continued to rely on the P3, less fast but safer. And, thanks to Nuvolari’s talent, the victories came.

Enzo Ferrari approached 1936 as a successful man: he was Alfa Romeo’s representative on circuits all over the world, he built a single-seater to which he could rightly have given his own name, he had with him men like Tazio Nuvolari and Nino Farina, but Above all, he was the only one who could fight on a par with the German giants Mercedes and Auto Union. New adjectives were then added to Enzo Ferrari’s profile: hard man, stubborn, willful. And winner, as he would prove even better.

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – THE YEAR OF THE DECISIVE TURN: DIVORCE FROM ALFA

GREAT CAUDILLO: In 1937 Ferrari’s dreams of victory coincided with those of Alfa Romeo, managed from 1933 directly by the state, but not with the wishes of Benito Mussolini and the Fascist party.

The high officials of the regime asked for more, they wanted success and glory on the circuits to match the Germans, who took advantage of the triumphs of Mercedes and Auto Union to increase the prestige of Nazism. That is why they pressured the Portello leaders so that the reins of the racing team returned to Milan. Thus, at the beginning of the year, 80% of the shares of the Ferrari team, which belonged to Enzo himself, were transferred to Alfa. There was little to discuss: superior orders. Ferrari lost much of its autonomy. Gioachino Colombo was invited to Modena to study a new single-seater, while Ferrari was in charge of developing eight-cylinder engines with few cubic centimeters for the future GP formula

The political situation and the technical charges did not prevent Ferrari from opening the season with a spectacular double in the Thousand Miles, where Pintacuda-Mambelli qualified first and Farina-Meazza second. After some other triumph in Italian races, it was time for the challenge with Mercedes and Auto Union and the bitter defeats. The team, despite Ferrari’s efforts, was no longer the same as in other times. The “only” Tazio Nuvolari, who won in Milan, did not change a situation that had become cumbersome. To the point that the fate of the team seemed cast.

The suffocating climate created by the fascist leaders, who wanted to look like the Germans at least on the circuits, had its first victim at the end of September: Vittorio Jano, the creator of the Alfa P2 and P3, was banished from the Portello after the failure of the 12 cylinders of the Milanese firm. On January 1, 1938, the creation of Alfa Corse was announced, the sports section of the Milan house. Its headquarters were in the Portello. For the Scudería Ferrari there was no salvation: it was absorbed completely by the new structure and liquidated.

and Enzo Ferrari? His experience was valuable, and his name evidently carried a certain weight for the fascist party, to the point that he was called to direct Alfa Corse. Mechanics, technicians, pilots, materials, projects and prototypes moved from Modena. material included four small single-seaters with eight-cylinder engines: the future 158.

The 158, which would become the legendary Alfetta, had been conceived in 1937 by Ferrari himself. The engine was an 8-cylinder 1500 cm with a compressor. The project was signed by Gioachino Colombo, the future father of the 12-cylinder V engine. that would mark so deeply the history of Ferrari. The technicians who made it were from Alfa Romeo, but the vehicle was born in Modena under the supervision of Ferrari, which at the time of negotiating the liquidation of the Escudería sold prototypes and prototypes to the Casa del Portello. Projects.

The contract by which the Escudería gave in was important: with that money and with the previously earned Ferrari, after the war, it would found its own car factory. However, in the same contract it was foreseen that Ferrari, in case of leaving Alfa Romeo He couldn’t do motor racing or racing for four years. But Enzo was going to overcome this obstacle with great ease. And the opportunity would present itself very soon.

In 1939 Ferrari left Alfa Romeo “I don’t want to give up my way of thinking,” he commented later. Apparently what motivated his return to Modena was the promotion of Wifredo Ricart, with whom Ferrari had never had good relations, as head of the projects for racing cars.

In reality, Ferrari felt deprived of the power and freedom it previously enjoyed. “In the hands of the Ferrari autocrat the Scuderia enjoyed remarkable independence, and it was often difficult to establish whether Alfa worked for Ferrari or Ferrari for Alfa,” Griffith Borgeson wrote. ,one of the best Alfa Romeo historians.

Thus, Ferrari returned to Modena. In the facilities of Trento and Trieste streets, previously occupied by the Scuderia, Auto Avio Construzioni emerged, a company specializing in the production of mechanical components for automobiles and aircraft. A group of Alfa technicians followed him to Modena on the new adventure. It was proof that Ferrari’s charisma was already great

. In addition, Ferrari considered that a car that belonged to him, the 158, had been taken from him, and he was already thinking of taking revenge. Perhaps he already knew that he was going to build another racing car, which would be called the 815…

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – HISTORY OF A MYTHICAL SYMBOL 

In the task of giving life to a true racing section of his company, Chinetti had the support of his friends George Arents, Jan de Vroom and Margaret Strong (niece of John Davison Rockefeller, and also Countess of Cuevas).

The name was inspired to Chinetti by the trade name of a transportation company, labeled on the canvas of a truck: North American Van Lines. “As a symbol – Chinetti said in an interview – I naturally chose the black Horse on a yellow At the top, instead of the Italian tricolor, I had a blue stripe with eight white stars. Under the Cavallino, the words North American Racing Team. Later it was Enzo Ferrari himself who convinced me to use only the initials, due to their more immediate visual impact.”

Thus the team became NART, wearing the United States flag at the top of its emblem, instead of the stars.

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – FERRARI BECOMES FERRARI

With Alberto Ascari comes the first victory in the F1 World Championship and, above all, the revenge on the beloved-hated Alfa Romeo. Thanks to the victories in the Grand Prix, his cars acquire international prestige.

1950 was a year of many races and many victories for Ferrari: up to three on the same day. Indeed, on May 7 Alberto Ascari won with the debutant Ferrari F2 at the Modena racetrack, Villoresi was first in the Grand Prix of Central Switzerland and, in the United States, Briggs Cunnigham won the Suffolk County test. It was also the year of Tazio Nuvolari’s last victory on the Palermo-Monte Pellegrino climb, with an Abarth 204 A spider. Formula 1 Championship and his relationship with Alberto Ascari was consolidated, who would star in triumphs and decisive results for the birth of the Ferrari myth.

How did the man from Maranello face the new challenge of Formula 1? as always: following his intuition and persevering in the choice made.The Alfa won with compressed engines, Ferrari wanted an aspirated engine.Aurelio Lampredi designed it, Luigi Bazzi made it.

In the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, on September 3, Ascari had the 4,500 cubic centimeter aspirated single-seater at his disposal. In practice he recorded the second fastest time, behind Fangio, and in the race he also came second. Ferrari knew it was only a matter of time. The confirmation was going to come at the British Grand Prix, on July 14, 1951 at Silverstone. The teams were defined, and the confrontation was direct: on the one hand, three Ferraris with Ascari, Villoresi and González; for the other four Alfa with Fangio, Farina, Bonetto and Sanesi. The fight for victory was a duel between Argentines: Fangio versus González. González won, and with him, Ferrari, who gave him a watch.

Later Ferrari was going to reveal how much weight the desire to demonstrate his superiority over Alfa Romeo had in his desire to achieve that first victory. What’s more: he declared that he had probably given him more than he had received in the period in which he had worked for the Portello firm. But at Silverstone no revenge was consummated: faced with the defeat of the Alfa Romeo 159, directly derived from the famous Alfetta 158, Ferrari said: “I have killed my mother”. and the chronicles of the time spoke of tears of happiness mixed with tears of pain.

For the world title it was not necessary to wait too long: in 1952 it was Alberto Ascari who secured it for the house of Maranello, a year in which, out of 109 participations in competitions, 95 victories, 47 second places and 33 third places were obtained. same year Enzo Ferrari was appointed Cavaliere del Lavoro.

In 1953, always with Alberto Ascari, Ferrari won both the World Championship for Manufacturers and the World Championship for Drivers. Ferrari had “arrived”.

His name became in the United States, in that of the best-known Italian after Christopher Columbus. The sports magazine Guerin Sportivo, in 1954, dedicated an entire issue to him. On the cover he appeared in a photo at the wheel of an F1 single-seater. Top ,the title: “Miracle in Maranello”. The first Ferrari F1 World Champion was driven by Alberto Ascari. He was the first Ferrari driver in those years. His relationship with Ferrari lasted about four and a half years. the satisfactions that a driver can bring to his constructor. But his contract was for little money: the man from Marenello was not particularly generous in these things. De Ascari, before having him in the Scudería, thought that he was a man who “forced cars too much.

Among his characteristics was that of performing to the maximum when he started in the lead. He was one of those who pressed the accelerator and took the curves with speed, “and always starting with the right trajectory”. After having “won everything”, at the end of 1953 He left Ferrari to go to Lancia, together with his teammate Villoresi. Ferrari commented: “If you ask too much of a friend, the friendship ends. I didn’t want to lose Ascari’s.”

Due to a fatality, Ascari lost his life in Monza on May 26, 1955, precisely with a two-liter Ferrari sports car that he had climbed just for the pleasure of trying it out. A misfortune still shrouded in mystery. A hard blow to assimilate for a man whose popularity in the world of racing increased from competition to competition. Just as he increased the orders for the cars that bore his name, not only in Italy, but throughout Europe and even in America. And in this Ferrari was not alone , but he had someone who helped him with passion.

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – FERRARI “FISHING” IN AMERICA: IN SEARCH OF NEW MARKETS.

The USA first becomes a sports battlefield, with the participation of Ascari in Indianapolis, and then one of the most important markets for the Cavallino. The “boss” of Maranello feeds the dream of uniting Formula 1 and Formula Indy in a unique and true World Championship, but his attempt fails.

Today as yesterday, the American market is one of the most important for the House of Maranello: so much oil in circulation on the transoceanic continent, so many dollars ready to be spent and so many rich people wanting to have fun behind the wheel in a country where the car is everything, the very essence of freedom. Enzo Ferrari was clear about all this very soon, almost immediately: already in 1952, barely five years after the debut of the first car that bore his name, the house of the Cavallino appeared in Indianapolis to compete in The 500 Miles, the most famous race in North America.

The car was the 375 Indy, an ex-formula that had been extensively modified. At the wheel was none other than Alberto Ascari: 19th in practice, he had to retire due to a broken axle shaft. This was Ferrari’s only official participation in the famous American speed race.
From the races to the roads, the step was brief: many Cavallino tourism models in those years and in the following ones took names that left no doubt about the market for which they were destined: 340 America (1951), 340 Mexico (1952) 342 America (1952), 375 America (1953), 410 SA Superamerica (1955), 250 GT California (1957), 400 SA Superamerica (1960), 365 California (1966) and 365 GTB/4 Daytona (1968).

At the beginning it was about chassis and engines closely related to the competitions, dressed by the most famous Italian coachbuilders, from Pininfarina to Ghia or Vignale. The 340 America, for example, has a 230 hp 4.1 liter engine. and 280 Km/h. of maximum speed, on the other hand, it was intended for the 1952 Pan-American Race, one of those competitions that most interested Enzo Ferrari, perhaps because they reminded him of the first Thousand Miles with their dusty roads. They were always cars with many cubic centimeters in the engine and many, many horses: the maximum even for people accustomed to spaces and exaggerated numbers.

So much so that, at a certain point, production was split: the 250 series with the three-liter V12 engines was reserved for Europe, while North America went to the higher displacements and bodies of almost monumental dimensions. A clear example is the coupés of the Superamerica family: five-liter engines and 340 horsepower (in 1955), very long bodies with large rear wings, following the fashion that prevailed in the United States.

The American adventure of the Cavallino’s house continued with the 1956 Indianapolis 500 with a single-seater, called Bardhal-Ferrari and driven by Nino Farina; it had a Kurtiss chassis with OSCA bodywork. An in-line six-cylinder derivative was mounted on it of the 121 LM, which however was uncompetitive. The peak of Maranello and the United States involvement was recorded when Enzo Ferrari became the spokesperson for a program to unite the Formula 1 World Championship with the Formula One Championship. Indy (and we must bear in mind that until 1960 the Indianapolis 500 was also among the scoring GPs for the conquest of the title).

All this materialized in two races that took place in Monza in 1957 and 1958, in the ring of the overpass track built for the occasion. The event was baptized 500 Miles of Monza and belonged to the Two Worlds trophy that rewarded the best ranked driver in the two 500 Miles, Monza and Indianapolis.

For this occasion Ferrari prepared a single-seater, the 412 MI, where the letters indicated Monza and Indianapolis. Luigi Musso marked the pole position and in the final classification he, Hill and Hawthorn qualified third behind the team of Rathmann and Bryran, who having won in Indianapolis he won the Two Worlds trophy. It must be said that in Europe the ostracism with respect to the Americans was evident: in the first edition of the Monza 500 Miles, in 1957, a ban by the Formula Drivers Association 1 prevented its riders from participating in the competition against nine cars and as many American drivers. In 1958 this did not happen and Ferrari went to work. But the dream of uniting the US and Europe had already vanished. Thus, Ferrari limited itself to continuing to sell its cars in America.

In the meantime, new and grandiose successes had catalyzed his attention towards Formula 1, a world of which he had become absolute owner.

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – PATTERN OF FORMULA 1 : THE “FERRARI FORMULA”

Single-seaters with the Prancing Horse on the hood won on all the world’s circuits, to the point that F1 spoke Italian. The founder of the Maranello house was the most influential man in the Grand Prix environment and his “victims” They were called Mercedes, Lancia, Porsche and Aston Martin.

Someone came to call it “Ferrari Formula”; Indeed, the influence exercised by the founder of the Maranello house in the world of F1 in the second half of the fifties was very great.
The reason was the large number of victories that the Cavallino single-seaters obtained in the most famous Grand Prix week after week. But much of the credit had to be assigned directly to Enzo Ferrari, who, with his charisma, had the authorities in his hands. of the International Automobile Federation and also to the other manufacturers. And something must be highlighted: we are talking about F1, the World Championship, not a provincial race.

Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Musso, Peter Collins, Maurice Trintignant, Mike Hawthorn, Tony Brooks, Jean Behra, Phill Hill, Wolfrang Von Trips: these were the speed kings who brought the black-on-yellow Ferrari Prancing Horse to prominence in all the Formula 1 circuits, from Montecarlo to Buenos Aires, from Reims to Silverstone, from Monza to Siracusa. Grand Prix stories, stories of courage, engines and challenges in the last hundredth of a second. Formula One, in those For years, he spoke Italian, although the Ferrari drivers often, almost always, came from outside Italy. of a world that still did not seek to give an elegant image, but seemed what it really was:a traveling circus of men and cars seeking fame and money.

The Cavallino was World Champion with Juan Manuel Fangio in 1956, with Mike Hawthorn in 1958, with Phil Hill in 1961… On the other hand, the positions conquered by the Maranello house in the Constructors’ World Championship were: 2nd in 1958 (year in which this classification was inaugurated), 2nd in 1959, 3rd in 1960 and 1st in 1961.

Six pole positions in 1956, four in 1958, six again in 1961. Five wins in 1956, as many in 1961 and, in between, another five, spread over three seasons, perhaps not at the highest level for Ferrari, but in any way important, because they served to consolidate the name, the fame of a brand that had existed for just over ten years.

Master of negotiations, the legendary discussions of Ferrari with the organizers of the Grand Prix over the money to receive are still recounted. The Drake of Maranello used to say: “If I go to win they have to pay me a lot. they have to pay much more”. It had reached the point that beating Ferrari was worth something more compared to the other manufacturers, despite being called Lancia, Maserati, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Porsche, BRM, Cooper, Vanwall and later, more ahead, Lotus, the cars of the great adversary, the other man who, like Enzo Ferrari, knew how to put his own figure and personality before the victories of his single-seaters: Colin Chapman, another man who made himself, like Ferrari, with a great love for cars and a great nose for pilots: the discoverer of Jim Clark, the Flying Scotsman.How many similarities with the founder of the House of Maranello…

Enzo Ferrari often built his popularity on disputes with the International Federation and with other manufacturers. He asserted his name, a name that carried weight. He did everything he could to prevent the establishment of a small-displacement formula: his Gran Turismo they were all large displacement, with impressive 12-cylinder V engines, and these were the engines that also had to fight on the World Championship circuits. But later, when Porsche pushed for the limit of 1,500 cubic centimeters displacement, Ferrari, inexplicably, accepted: apparently it did not make sense, but in reality its acceptance cost quite a lot of money to the Stuttgart house and to the Grand Prix organizers.

And besides, Ferrari was not surprised without being prepared: he already had a six-cylinder engine ready, to which he gave the name of his recently deceased son, Dino. And, indeed, the Cavallino won. The only challenge that the founder of the home of the Cavallino lost was the reference to the rear engine: also in that case, with an eye on serial production, Ferrari knew that it could not betray its customers by running, and if it was possible to win, a car with the engine behind the pilots. He tried, with all the resources he had, but it was a desperate battle, and he lost it.

It could not have been otherwise. And so, after having suffered the power of the crude English cars with rear engines, Ferrari also recycled itself, and won. It was 1961, the car had been designed by Carlo Chiti and the driver was Phill Hill .

But other commitments kept Enzo Ferrari’s head and heart away from the Formula 1 World Championship circuits: the ever-increasing production of his Gran Turismos.
But above all, the loss of his dearest son, Dino, the greatest drama of the long life of the Drake of Maranello.

THE HISTORY OF ENZO FERRARI – TRAGEDIES OF MOTOR ITALY: A PERIOD OF GREAT BITTERNESS

In a short period of time, the founder of the Cavallino house lost some of his best and most beloved drivers and was accused of homicide due to the very serious accident suffered by De Pórtago in the Thousand Miles of 1957.

The end of the 1950s, between 1957 and 1961, was a bitter period for Enzo Ferrari. Paradoxically, the company he founded after the Second World War prospered and established itself in all the most important automobile markets in the world, increasing the number of sales and, consequently, the level of profits, thanks above all to the collaboration with Pinin Farina.

But if the public side of Enzo Ferrari’s life seemed entirely crowned with success, the private side was experiencing one of the most serious crises in the history of this willful and stubborn man, who made his factory his life’s mission. Within a short period Enzo Ferrari entered the eye of the hurricane, and was accused of the dangerousness of his vehicles and the way in which he led to the death of young people who, in the face of danger, had only the shield of their own courage .

It all started on March 14, 1957: Eugenio Castellotti, a sentimental partner of Delia Scala and a Ferrari driver, died during a private practice session at the Modena racetrack. He was 27 years old and had a future as a champion ahead of him. a very hard blow to bear, because of the close relationship he had with Castellotti and also because the pilot had become a remarkable character in Italy at the time, to the point that public opinion was deeply moved by his disappearance.

But much worse was the tragedy of the Thousand Miles of 1957, in which one of its main drivers, Alfonso de Pórtago, and ten other people lost their lives. Enzo Ferrari, in his capacity as owner of the team for which the driver He was running, he was framed for homicide. It was May 12, 1957: the Ferrari number 531 of the Marquis Alfonso de Pórtago left the circuit a few minutes after arriving in Brescia.

In the accident, the pilot, the co-pilot (the journalist Edmund Gurner Nelson) and nine spectators lost their lives. The press revolted against motor racing and against Ferrari in particular, which was framed and later acquitted, after years of suffering. this process against him, which almost led him to abandon the world of competitions, on May 23, 1960 Ferrari constituted the Sociedad Anónima SEFAC (Sociedad Exercise Fábricas Automoviles y Carreras) to replace Auto Construcciones Ferrari that had it as sole owner. and responsible. In any case, due to the seriousness of the accident and the general indignation of the public against road car racing, the 1957 edition was the last Thousand Miles disputed.

For the founder of the House of Maranello, however, it was only the beginning of a long ordeal that saw him lose some of his best drivers of all time. At the Nürburgring, on the occasion of the 1958 German Grand Prix, Peter died Collins. The newspapers spoke of love rivalries with Mike Hawthorn, his teammate and friend, which would have made him nervous and distracted. But, as always, Enzo Ferrari himself found himself at the center of the controversy.

In Reims, at the 1958 French Grand Prix, the Cavallino’s “family” once again dressed in mourning: Luigi Musso, a Roman, one of the greatest Formula One talents of that period, was the victim of a serious accident and He died in the hospital due to the injuries sustained. In this case, there was no lack of gossip either: it was said that Musso “had” to win that race, not so much to get closer to the world title, but above all, because he had significant debts from gambling and, consequently, great need for cash. On July 9, the Osservatore Romano defined Enzo Ferrari as “a Saturn that devours his children”.

In January 1959, Mike Hawthorn, active World Champion, precisely with a Cavallino single-seater, died in a traffic accident. This time Ferrari had nothing to do with it, but another of his “sons” left and in the history of the Cavallino lit up another black star.

After a period of relative calm, in Monza, on September 14, 1961, the tragedy was once again the protagonist in the Italian Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the season. At the entrance of the fast Parabolic curve, Jim Clark, then a young and promising driver, touched with his Lotus the Ferrari of Wolfrang “Taffy” Von Trips, a German baron who led the World Championship with 33 points, compared to 29 of his Phill Hill teammate, and one of the most experienced and fastest Grand Prix drivers.

Von Trips’ Ferrari flew through the air and fell into the public, causing 14 fatalities. Von Trips died on the spot. The press was baited again. It is one of the most serious accidents in the entire history of racing .Not this time Enzo Ferrari was directly responsible either, but from the human point of view, once again, another new and very tough test was imposed on him. feel truly alone.

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – THE BATTLE FOR LE MANS

In the 1960s, the founder of the Casa del Cavallino had to fight hard to remain number one in all the world’s circuits. With the Sport cars, after the negotiation to cede the Maranello factory to Ford failed, there would be a formidable fight with Detroit signing for supremacy at Le Mans.

Enzo Ferrari, an experienced businessman and “motivator of men”, as he defined himself, knew with certainty that losing a battle was nothing if the war was later won. The problem, for him, was that the confrontation with Ford over the supremacy in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the queen of the great circuit endurance races, had been transformed into an unrelenting challenge. The reasons for this implacable fight, in fact, are very simple: just go back a few years .

At the beginning of the 1960s, Enzo Ferrari acquired the building that was Ford’s headquarters in Bologna: an operation that was not as simple as it might seem. That gesture by Ferrari was a subtle irony, as if to say: “There it is, the small craftsman from Modena who buys the Italian headquarters of the largest automobile industry in the world”.

But it was also a way of sending a message to someone, someone, that is, Fiat, who was watching the Maranello “craftsman” with interest as if Ferrari hinted at the possibility of an agreement, or at least a rapprochement, with the company. Detroit house.

Indeed, an authentic negotiation was opened with Ford for the transfer of Ferrari, which reached its peak at the beginning of 1963. The founder of the Casa del Cavallino said, at that time: “Who will I leave Ferrari to? To a trust of American millionaires? If I continue, among so much lack of understanding, among so many enemies from within and without, if I fight like an old and tired lion that roars more than it knows how to scratch, I do it only for the 300 families of the workers who work for me” .
but the negotiations with Ford, who wanted to create a high-level sporting image, dissipated: Ferrari said no. And thus launched the challenge for supremacy at Le Mans.

Ford had started indirectly, backing Carroll Shelby and his Cobra GTs, which had occasionally put Ferrari saloons in trouble between 1962 and 1963. Own car capable of beating the Ferraris, the GT40. It was in 1964.

To combat Ford’s weapons, that year Ferrari entered no less than 8 official cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans: three 330 P, three 275 P and two 250 LM. In the end, Jean Guichet and Nino Vacarella won with a 275 P. Five Ferraris qualified in the top six and, in fourth place, the Ford of Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant.
In 1965 the atmosphere became even hotter. Ferrari had fine-tuned the evolution of its own cars: it officially entered two 330 P2s and one 275 P2, but there were seven other Cavallino cars in the race at Le Mans and they could not be defined from the all as “private” cars.

Ford entered two 7-liter prototypes plus four “small” 4.7-liter ones. For the House of Detroit it was another failure: three Ferraris in the top positions, and the first Cobra was eighth. But Ford was preparing revenge. ..

In 1966 the GT40 had already reached its optimum shape. Light, compact, aerodynamically efficient, powerful… But Maranello had not rested on its laurels: three 330 P3s had been fine-tuned, an improved version of the Cavallino’s 12-cylinder Sport. Eight Fords were entered to win the most famous race on the Old Continent, and seven Ferraris had the task of standing in their way.

The race was terrible and in the end, after three years of effort and millions of dollars spent, Ford got what he wanted: victory at Le Mans. The GT40 MkII of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon qualified first, followed by two other ‘twin brothers’. The first Ferrari to reach the finish line, a private 275 GTB, only finished eighth: a true defeat for the Drake from Maranello.

The following year, 1967, the Le Mans battle between Ford and Ferrari took on almost dramatic nuances. The House of Detrit presented an evolution of the 500 horsepower GT40 and from Maranello came one of the most beautiful Sport cars of all time, the 330 P4. . At an average speed of 211 km/h, the Ford of AJFoyt and Dan Gurney overtook the Ferraris of Parkes-Scarfiotti and Mairesse-”Beurlys” over the finish line.

In 1968 no official Ferrari was entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and for the Ford GT40 of Pedro Rodríguez and Lucien Bianchi it was easy to win in front of two Porsche two-seaters: a success that was repeated the following year, when Enzo Ferrari entered the new 312 P, which had only three liters of displacement.
The balance of the battle of Le Mans, then, was not entirely positive for Ferrari.
And the war was not over, because in Formula 1 the star of Cosworth engines was about to begin to shine (first victory: Dutch GP in 1967), Ford-based V-eight cylinders that would win so many competitions and put in a strong commitment to Drake cars from Maranello.
But the most important issue for Enzo Ferrari was the transfer of his factory, and right at the end of the Le Mans contest against Ford, Ferrari would find a satisfactory solution to the problem.

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – THE ENTRY OF FIAT: TECHNICAL AND PRODUCTIVE RELAUNCH

After the unsuccessful negotiation with Ford and a contact with Alfa Romeo, in 1969 the founder ceded the House of Maranello to the first Italian car manufacturer, retaining, however, absolute independence in sports activity.

Perhaps the most important commitment for Enzo Ferrari in the sixties was to give continuity to the factory founded by him. To achieve this goal, he had to find the right partner. And he had to do it quickly. The commitment in competitions had become, at the beginning of the sixties, increasingly expensive, at the limit of what was bearable for a constructor like Ferrari that financed itself solely with its own income.

The negotiation with the American colossus Ford had reached the final signing of the contract, and at the last moment Ferrari said no. Because he had realized that the House of Detroit would not have allowed him that autonomy in the field of competitions that for Ferrari it was of fundamental importance. On the other hand, from the beginning it had been clear: “I hand over the company, leaving others to deal with the productive side, but I intend to be able to dedicate myself entirely to prototypes and racing vehicles in working conditions. absolute independence, with the abundance of financial and technical means that I do not have.” In practice, there was going to be a Ford-Ferrari that would build Gran Turismo cars and a Ferrari-Ford that would participate in competitions.Ferrari had reserved 90% ownership of “Ferrari-Ford” and its presidency, while Ford would get only 10%.

But, right at the end, he understood that the plans of the Detroit firm were different: Ford also wanted control of the sports activity, and had tried to obtain it with some clauses in the contract. The Maranello Drake realized this, and broke off the negotiation. It was May 20, 1963. And from that moment, as is known, Henry Ford swore revenge for the insult received from Ferrari by winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Thus, a year later, in July, Ferrari returned to the Portello, after 24 years away, to meet Giuseppe Luraghi, the president of Alfa Romeo. Among the many topics of conversation, the future of Ferrari in the sporting terrain and the sporting aspirations of Alfa Romeo in that same field. But for the Casa del Portello the times for a high-level commitment were not yet ripe. However, in 1969 another meeting between Ferrari and Luraghi took place, this time in Modena.

Luraghi told Ferrari that a few months earlier he had met with the lawyer Giovanni Agnelli and from that meeting the possibility of an acquisition of the Maranello house by Fiat and Alfa Romeo had arisen. But it was again the Milan house that that he backed down, due to the high financial costs of an initiative of this magnitude and because he had already started a sports program with Autodelta, a structure directed by the Tuscan engineer Carlo Chiti, precisely a former Ferrari technician.

But the preliminaries of the failed Ferrari-Fiat-Alfa agreement made it possible to link even closer relations between Ferrari and the Turin house, relations that, in any case, had already produced fruits, such as the realization of the six-cylinder V-shaped engine dedicated to the son of the Modena manufacturer, Dino, who equipped a Ferrari racing car, the Dino 166 Formula 2 and a Fiat GT, the Dino, precisely, available in two versions, Coupé and Spider, and with two engines, 2 and 2.4 litres.

The reason for this technical alliance was that to run in F2, Ferrari needed to manufacture 500 units per year, since the regulations of the International Sports Commission provided that to run in F2 it was necessary to use engines derived from the series, and by itself it did not I would have made it.

Prompted by the sale of Maserati to Citroën in 1968, Ferrari wanted to give up its factory as soon as possible. The decisive meeting with Giovanni Agnelli took place on June 18, 1969 on the eighth floor of the Fiat Palace in Corso Marconi, Turin. Recalling that meeting, he said of Agnelli: “More than twenty years younger than me, I noticed in him the strength of the modern man, of the politician and business diplomat, of the lively and synthetic observer.”

The negotiation with Fiat, unlike the previous ones, came to fruition. On August 1, 1969, Ferrari was officially transferred to Fiat.

The injection of new capitals allowed the Maranello house a technical and productive relaunch. Some engineers also arrived from Turin with the new funds. But, a double problem immediately arose: how to deal with the supremacy of Porsche in the World Championship races and how to solve a crisis in Formula 1 that, for a long time, seemed to be one of the most serious in the history of the Horse House.

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – FIGHT TO THE LAST METER

The beginning of the 1970s, despite the financial maintenance of Fiat, was a difficult period in the world of competition for the founder of the Casa del Cavallino. In the World Sport Championship, Porsche is the new adversary to defeat, and in F1 the Maranello’s “reds” failed to maintain supremacy against new rivals.

After signing the transfer of the company founded by him to Fiat, Enzo Ferrari went through a particularly difficult period with the Scudería de Maranello. On all the competition fronts, from the World Sport Championship to the Formula 1 circuits, it seemed that fate had taken its toll on the Modena manufacturer, who, once again, was called upon to face a situation that could defeat him.

In 1968 the regulations of the World Championship of Makes changed: from now on Sport vehicles were to participate, built in a minimum number of 25 units and with a maximum displacement of five liters, and Prototype cars with a maximum displacement of three liters. Already that year, with the complicity of the abandonment of Ferrari and Chaparral, the World Cup was a private matter between the Ford GT40 and the Porsche 908, and in the end the German House prevailed, which was the rising star in the world of Sport cars. And indeed, in 1969 Porsche presented its latest creation: the 917.

This large two-seater with a 12-cylinder, 4.5-litre engine (which in the initial version had no less than 560 horsepower) was to mark the history of the World Championship for Manufacturers until 1972, the year in which Ferrari would return to victory with the effective 312 P/B of 12 cylinders and three liters.
For three years the 917 was invincible. In its 1970 version it had a 5-litre engine and 600 horsepower, and on the long straights of Le Mans it reached a speed of 380 km/h.

And it was precisely against this car that Ferrari presented its weapon: the 512, a 5-litre 12-cylinder two-seater, which debuted at the 1970 24 Hours of Daytona. But the efforts of the House of Maranello did not give the expected results and, after the battle for supremacy at Le Mans against Ford, a new disappointment embittered Enzo Ferrari. Especially since the World Sport Championship, or, what is the same, the races for two-seater cars, was, always, a workhorse of the factory founded by him. During the 1950s and much of the 1960s, Ferrari had been, in effect, an almost uncontested star on the racing circuit for covered-wheel cars.
Their revenge did not take place until 1972, when the Ferrari 312 P/B brought the World Cup crown back to Maranello with an impressive series of victories.

In Formula 1, too, the situation was not rosy in those years for the House of the Prancing Horse. After second place in the Manufacturers’ standings in 1966, Ferrari undertook a series of unlucky seasons that led it to fourth place in 1967. and 1968 and fifth in 1969. In 1970 he returned to second place in the standings at the end of the year, to fall back to sixth in 1973, a result that until 1980 would remain the worst obtained by Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings. of Formula 1..
In 1980 the Scudería Ferrari qualified in 10th place overall, with only 8 points to their credit. In 1971 and 1972 the House of the Prancing Horse was fourth at the end of the season. In 1969 and 1973 no victory was recorded for the drivers Ferrari in Formula 1, and only one Grand Prix was won in 1968 and 1972.

The great dominators of Formula 1 in those years were Lotus, Matra, Tyrrell and Jackie Stewart. Lotus won the 1968 Drivers’ World Championship with Graham Hill; Matra (entered by the Tyrrell team), won the 1969 World Championship with Stewart. 1970 Lotus won again with Rindt, who was awarded the title posthumously, after dying at Monza in September. Jackie Stewart was king again the following year, this time driving a single-seater built by Tyrrell. With Lotus he shone in 1972 the star of Emerson Fittipaldi, but in 1973 Stewart regained the title of Formula 1 World Champion, which the following year returned to the hands of the Brazilian Fittipaldi, this time with McLaren.

Throughout this period, Ferrari only had the “crumbs of the cake” of Formula 1 left. But in 1975 a series of positive factors made the House of Maranello return to the top step of the podium, with a young Austrian driver destined for to have a relevant role in the recovery of the House of Maranello: Niki Lauda. But this is already another chapter in the long and fascinating adventure of Enzo Ferrari…

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – LAUDA AND VILLENEUVE: THIS IS HOW THEY CONQUERED THE DRAKE

Very different from each other, both sensitized the founder of Ferrari, the first gave him two world titles, the second, a generous, impetuous and brave way of driving and competing. Perhaps they represented the last exciting chapters for the man from Maranello.

Can you love two things that are the antithesis of each other and always remain the same person? If possible; or at least Enzo Ferrari could, who, in a period of less than five years between one and the other, was the biggest fan of two drivers who were like oil and water, ice and fire: Niki Lauda and Gilles Villeneuve.

They represented perhaps the last chapter of the history of the House of Maranello that really excited Enzo Ferrari, in two ways that were certainly different -or rather, very different-, but equally exalting.

Niki Lauda arrived at Ferrari in 1974 with the final “push” of Clay Regazzoni, who the following year was sidelined in the fight for the World title after having waited for years for the right opportunity and the recovered competitiveness of the Ferrari cars. The opportunity was taken by the pilot he had “recommended”: a young Austrian with unmistakable teeth and a closed smile, as Austrian as he was.
Perhaps Lauda was not an outpouring of sympathy, but he was undoubtedly a “monster” tuning the car to obtain the best performance. Enzo Ferrari, in his book Pilots, what people!, remembers it like this: “It immediately seemed like a Serious young man, meticulous in his preparation and in the tuning of the car, which he achieved in an instinctive, natural way.

In the races he immediately expressed qualities of security and determination”.
An undoubtedly good opinion, although cold, almost as much as the character of the Austrian pilot. And although later, in the same book, Ferrari would specify that Lauda “in a short time became a great and intelligent driver: this is out of the question”, on the other hand, in the pages written by him he is not very tender. On the other hand, he was very sensitive when Lauda won two World Cups, 1975 and 1977, and put Ferrari back on top of the podium, at the peak of performance that had been his custom for years and that, instead, in these Lately they had been lacking.

The second half of the seventies was a great stage for Ferrari. Niki Lauda lost the 1976 world championship due to the terrible accident at the Nürburgring, in which he was saved by the courage of Arturo Merzario, and came second, just “ a sigh” by James Hunt, a blond English lover of la dolce vita, very talented and very lucky.

Later, in 1978, Ferrari was reunited with a single-seater, the 312 T3, perhaps not as competitive as the 312 T and T2 of 1975 and 1977, but, above all, it lost a leader of the caliber of Lauda in the team, and thus the House of Maranello fell back into mediocrity (second in the Constructors’ World Championship behind Lotus and third with Reutemann in the Drivers’ World Championship). But it was only for a short time, because in 1979 Jody Scheckter gave him back the satisfaction of first place in the Formula 1 World Championship.

And we arrive at a new era: the era of Gilles Villeneuve, a Canadian with an iron will, with a passion for flight, not only by helicopter or plane, but also by car, judging by the number of “flights” his red single-seater he made in the five years that Villeneuve was in Maranello, from the end of 1977 until May 8, 1982, when, at the tests in Zolder, Belgium, his single-seater collided with the March de Mass and “took off” for the last time.

Gilles, as everyone simply called him, immediately fell into the heart of Enzo Ferrari, because he reminded him of certain drivers from other times, above all, the great Tazio Nuvolari, who drove more with his heart than with his brain. Gilles always gave “ 110 percent”, and no other driver has ever inflamed the fans of the Cavallino team as in the years when he was small, skinny, with sad eyes, at the wheel of those powerful but not very competitive single-seaters.

Gilles won six victories with the Cavallino single-seaters, but these were not the ones that enthused Enzo Ferrari. It was his personality: Gilles jumped from the F1 car to a Fiat 124 always on the limit and skidding, from the steering wheel to the control lever of a plane or a helicopter or at the helm of a boat, always ready for the challenge, as when he repeated the confrontation already experienced by Nuvolari: the car against the plane (a jet fighter).
From a sporting point of view, Gilles was born on a motosled, a common sport in Canada: to win you have to have courage, courage and more courage. And Gilles did not lack it. That is why Enzo Ferrari wanted it with him, despite criticism from many. “I wanted it”, wrote Ferrari in Pilots, what people! Just like that. Few words to remember something that no speech could have described. Neither pilot could repeat.

 

THE STORY OF ENZO FERRARI – THE LAST YEARS: THE EPILOGUE

The 70s and 80s, for Enzo Ferrari, were those of a man who is already a legend. The founder of the House of the Prancing Horse is still active in the management of the Formula 1 Scudería, makes courageous decisions and surrounds himself with collaborators. more trustworthy.

Surviving one’s own legend is a thankless task, even for a person accustomed to everything like Enzo Ferrari. But his last years on visa, far from being a long and bitter moment, were the last part of a triumphal cavalcade, even with a few sparks. fantasy, courage and risk.
In recent years, Enzo Ferrari has dealt almost exclusively with competitions, that is, with the Formula 1 Racing Team, leaving the management of the factory in the hands of men from Turin. But he has not completely averted his gaze from his creature, and He did not stop criticizing the attitude of the leaders whenever it seemed necessary. Instead, in Formula 1 he was always among the protagonists, even at a “political” level.

In 1986, for example, he began, albeit controversially, the creation of a Formula Indy car. In 1987 he was among the signatories of the Agreement of Concord, along with Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Marie Balestre. his contacts abroad as much as possible, dedicating himself to writing many letters, satisfying his other great passion with the need for communication: writing. But he is a public figure and that is why, until the end, he does not escape official meetings or the visits of public figures, spiced each occasion with the irony that made him famous, and in a way feared, throughout the world.

In any case, he wanted the most trusted collaborators with him. Like Mauro Forghieri, with whom he had a working relationship, but above all a personal one, for more than 25 years, or like Michele Alboreto, one of the men who were particularly close to him in recent years.

The Maranello “Drake” never hid his predilection for the Milan driver, the last Italian hope in Formula 1. In 1985 Michele Alboreto came close to winning the World Championship, qualifying in second place behind Alain Prost with McLaren. Ferrari also came second in the Constructors’ World Championship, a title that the House of Maranello had won for the last time in 1983. This is how Ferrari remembered it in his book Pilots, What people! : “My sympathies towards Michele Alboreto are known.
He is a young man who drives very well, with few mistakes. He is fast, with a beautiful style: qualities that remind me of Wolfrang Von Trips, whom Alboreto also resembles in his polite and serious manner. I have stated that he is among the top six in Formula 1 and that with a competitive car he would surely not miss the opportunity to be proclaimed champion. ”

Michele Alboreto was the last driver of whom Enzo Ferrari was a fan. It should not be surprising, then, that Alboreto ran with the colors of the Prancing Horse between 1984 and 1988, the year in which Don Enzo died. Unfortunately, these were not the years of best competitiveness for the Cavallino single-seaters.

Ferrari itself tried to remedy this situation, with sometimes very brave decisions. It took control of the situation, entrusting the project of its Formula 1 cars to the Englishman John Barnard, a technician of value “torn” from McLaren at a price of gold. Ferrari authorized the creation of the Guilford research and projects center in England: it was the first time that such an important portion of Ferrari’s work left the Italian confines.

In any case, the single-seaters designed by Barnard won 11 victories between 1987 and 1991. Before Barnard, Ferrari had entrusted the technical direction of Formula 1 cars to Harvey Postlethwaite, in 1984, assigning Mauro Forghieri to the production sector, and in 1986 he had called Gustav Brunner, an Austrian technician, to Maranello.
As you can see, Ferrari wasn’t exactly thinking about retiring yet…

The photos of his last period almost always portray him with dark glasses. His face is gaunt, he has less hair on his head and they are completely white. But Enzo Ferrari’s expression was never sad, not even at the end. There are photographs that show him smiling, happy, even laughing: the Ferrari man was not even won over by time.

August 16, 1988 is one of the saddest dates for the world of motorsports: Enzo Ferrari’s heart stopped beating. The blow, for the factory that he founded and directed for so many years, was very hard. But the word “end” for Ferrari had not yet been written and, thanks to the continuity that the “Drake” from Maranello took care to ensure through the transfer to Fiat, Ferrari is still alive.

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The story of Enzo Ferrari

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