Enzo
Ferrari
 was
born in 1898 in Modena Italy. His father, Alfredo, ran a local metal-fabricating
business. When he was 10 his father took Ferrari and his brother Alfredo
Jr. to an automobile race in Bologna. After attending a number of other
races he decided that he too wanted to become a racing car driver. Ferrari's
formal education was relatively sketchy, something that he would regret
in his later years. In 1916 tragedy, which would haunt Ferrari his entire
life struck his family to its core with the death of his father and brother
in the same year. He spent World War I shoeing mules but the worldwide flu
of 1918 brought upon his discharge and almost ended his life. he applied
for a job at Fiat only to be turned down. Eventually he was able to get
a job at CMN, a small carmaker involved with converting war surplus. His
duties included test driving which he did in between delivering chassis
to the coach builder. About this time he took up racing and in 1919 he finished
ninth at the Targa Floria. Through his friend Ugo Sivocci he got a job with
Alfa Romeo who entered some modified production cars in the 1920 Targa Floria.
Ferrari driving one of these cars managed to finish second. While at Alfa
Romeo he came under the patronage of Giorgio Rimini who was Nicola Romeo's
aide. In 1923 he was racing and winning at the Circuit of Sivocci at Ravenna
when he met the father of the legendary Italian W.W.I ace Francesco Baracca.
The senior Baracca was enamored with the courage and audacity of the young
Ferrari and presented the young driver with his son’s squadron badge,
which was the famous Prancing Horse on a yellow shield.  In
1924 he scored his greatest victory, winning the Coppa Acerbo. ... Among
the different competitions whom, in that time, I participated in, I remember
with particular satisfaction my victory at Pescara in 1924, with an Alfa
Romeo R.L. With this car I had won at Ravenna the Racetrack of Savio and
at Rovigo the Racetrack of Polesine, but in the Acerbo Cup I initialed my
fame as a pilot. In fact I was able to beat the Mercedes, which was just
returning from the success of the Targa Florio. In the team of the Alfa
there was also Campari with the famous P2, but, unfortunately, he was forced
to retire. My mechanic was Eugenio Siena, a Campari's cousin, full of an
agonistic spirit which was over his relationship duties, who died in Tripoli
in the Gran Prix of 1938 when he was graduating as an international pilot.
As agreed, since the first lap I should have looked for the shape of Campari's
P2 in the driving mirror, if I had lead the way, to give him way with dispatch.
I had a very speedy start and at each lap I repeated my search in the mirror,
but in vain: I couldn't see the P2. Worried about his absence - Campari's
car was faster than mine- and the chase of Bonmartini and Giulio Masetti's
Mercedes, I looked at Siena with a first sign to slow down. But Siena gave
a cry where there was not even a shadow of worry about the delay of his
cousin: So I insisted on the first position, and I won. Campari explained
me that he had hidden the car in a by-street, after having retired for a
damage to the change-gear, so that the antagonists would not have realized
too soon his surrender... Enzo Ferrari from "Piloti che gente..." After
some more success he was promoted to full factory driver. His racing career
up till that time mostly consisted of local races in second hand cars but
now he was expected to compete driving the latest cars at the years most
prestigious race the French Grand Prix. What
happened next is not quite clear but it seems that Ferrari suffered a crisis
of confidence and was not able to take part in the the biggest race of his
career. A lesser man may have been permanently scared by this but Ferrari
was able to resume his position at Alfa Romeo becoming Rimini's "Mr. Fixit".
He did not race again until 1927 but his racing career was pretty much over
before it really began. Recognizing one's limits in this most dangerous
of sports should be minimized he continued to compete in minor events and
in this he was quite successful. Ferrari by this time was married and owned
a Alfa distributorship in Modena. In 1929 Ferrari started his own firm,
Scuderia Ferrari. He was sponsored in this enterprise by the Ferrara-based
Caniano brothers, Augusto and Alfredo, heirs to a textile fortune. The firm’s
main task was to assist his wealthy Alfa Romeo customers with their racing
efforts by providing delivery, mechanical support and any other services
that they would require. With Alfa Romeo he exchanged a guarantee of technical
assistance with stock in his company. Ferrari then made similar deals with
Bosch, Pirelli and Shell. To supplement his "stable" of amateur drivers
he induced Giuseppe Campari to join his team. He followed this with an even
greater coup by signing Tazio Nuvolari. In his first year the Scuderia Ferrari
could boast 50 full and part-time drivers! The team competed in 22 events
and scored 8 victories and several good placings. Scuderia Ferrari caused
a sensation. It was the largest team ever put together by one individual.
None of the drivers were paid a salary but received a percentage of the
prize money won. Any extra technical or administrative assistance a driver
required was gladly given for a price. The basic plan called for the driver
to get to the race and his car would be delivered to the track and any entrance
fees or duties were handled by the Scuderia. It is not surprising that Ferrari
would look fondly back upon this period. It is also not out of the question
that if anyone could survive as an independent in the current Formula One
world then the younger Ferrari would be that man. Alfa
Romeo would continue to be represented by both the factory and Scuderia
teams. But soon everything would change as Alfa Rome announced its withdrawal;
from racing starting with the 1933 season due to financial problems. At
first this seemed to be just the opening that Ferrari needed but then it
was realized that their own supply of new racing cars would soon dry up.
Luckily for the Scuderia, Pirelli interceded and convinced Alfa to supply
Ferrari with six P3's and the services of engineer Luigi Bazzi and test
driver Attilio Marinoni. The Scuderia would now be in effect Alfa Romeo's
racing department. In 1932 his first son also named Alfredo after
his father, and known as Dino was born, and Ferrari took this opportunity
to retire from driving. A more professional turn was also taken by the team.
This upset Alfredo Caniato and he was bought out by Count Carlo Felice Trossi
who was a part-time driver as well as a full-time millionaire. All
looked set for Ferrari to make his true mark on the racing scene. What he
did not count on was a German tidal wave in the form of Auto Union and Mercedes.
In 1935 Ferrari signed the French driver Rene Dreyfus who most recently
drove for Bugatti. He was struck by the difference between his old team
and Ferrari. "The difference between being a member
of the Bugatti team and Scuderia Ferrari was virtually night and day," recalled
Dreyfus. I lived with Meo Constantini, the Bugatti team manager, I visited
with Ferrari. "With Ferrari, I learned the business of racing, for there
was no doubt he was a businessman. Enzo Ferrari was a pleasant person and
friendly, but not openly affectionate. There was, for example, none of the
sense of belonging to the family that I had with the Maserati brothers,
nor the sense of spirited fun and intimacy that I had with Meo Constantini.
Enzo Ferrari loved racing, of that there was no question. Still, it was
more than an enthusiast’s love, but one tempered by the practical realization
that this was a good way to build a nice, profitable empire. I knew he was
going to be a big man one day, even then when the cars he raced carried
somebody else’s name. I felt sure that eventually they would carry
his. Through the years the Scuderia Ferrari would employ such great driver
as Giuseppe Campari, Louis Chiron, Achille Varzi and the greatest of them
all Tazio Nuvolari. Except for Nuvolari's
great victory in the 1935 German Grand Prix, victories in any of the major
races were few and far between. During these years his team faced the German
might of Auto Union and Mercedes. On one occasion Ferrari had the opportunity
to passenger the great Nuvolari. At the trials on the "Three Provinces"
Circuit, when he asked his companion (Ferrari was also driving there with
a more powerful car than the Mantuan's) to take him with him. It should
be added that Nuvolari did not know that circuit. "At the first bend," Ferrari
writes, "I had the clear sensation that Tazio had taken it badly and that
we would end up in the ditch; I felt myself stiffen as I waited for the
crunch. Instead, we found ourselves on the next straight with the car in
a perfect position. I looked at him," Ferrari goes on. "His rugged face
was calm, just as it always was, and certainly not the face of someone who
had just escaped a hair-raising spin. I had the same sensation at the second
bend. By the fourth or fifth bend I began to understand; in the meantime,
I had noticed that through the entire bend Tazio did not lift his foot from
the accelerator, and that, in fact, it was flat on the floor. As
bend followed bend, I discovered his secret. Nuvolari entered the bend somewhat
earlier than my driver's instinct would have told me to. But he went into
the bend in an unusual way: with one movement he aimed the nose of the car
at the inside edge, just where the curve itself started. His foot was flat
down, and he had obviously changed down to the right gear before going through
this fearsome rigmarole. In this way he put the car into a four-wheel drift,
making the most of the thrust of the centrifugal force and keeping it on
the road with the traction of the driving wheels. Throughout the bend the
car shaved the inside edge, and when the bend turned into the straight the
car was in the normal position for accelerating down it, with no need for
any corrections." Ferrari honestly admits that he soon became used to this
exercise, because he saw Nuvolari do it countless times. "But each time
I seemed to be climbing into a roller coaster and finding myself coming
through the downhill run with that sort of dazed feeling that we all know."
In 1937 Ferrari suggested to Alfa that they build 1.5-litre vetturetta class
cars but what he got was Alfa Romeo's decision to bring the racing effort
back in-house. After being the man in charge at the Scuderia he found himself,
the new Direttore Sportivo, working under Alfa's engineering director,
Wilfredo Ricart. This was a situation he could not stomach and soon decided
to quit. As part of his severance agreement he could not compete against
his former bosses for four years. Ferrari started a new company called Auto-Avio
Costruzioni S.p.A. which produced machine parts for various clients. Except
for a couple of specials created for the 1940 Mille Miglia, Ferrari would
have to wait out World War II before he could get back to racing. The
Ferrari of the Scuderia years was very much the hands on team manager quite
unlike the Ferrari of later years when he did not attend any of the race
and was given information over the telephone and in reports from his employees.
Ferrari continued to be successful after he stopped attending the races
but it is not hard to imagine that in this were the seeds of Ferrari’s
future decline. After the war Ferrari set out to create his own car and
in 1947 a 1.5-litre Tipo125 entered the Grand Prix of Monaco. The car was
designed by his old collaborator Gioacchino Colombo. Ferrari’s first
Grand Prix victory came in 1951 at the British Grand Prix in the hands of
Argentine Froilan Gonzalez. The team had a chance for a World Championship
evaporate at the Spanish Grand Prix. Before the most important race in the
young team’s history Ferrari decided to experiment with new Pirelli
tires. The result was thrown treads, which allowed Fangio to win the race
and his first title. Sports cars were also an important endeavor for Ferrari
but in marked difference with other car manufacturers racing was not used
to sell more cars, rather cars were sold so that the team could go racing!
Many of the cars that were sold were last year’s models to private
entrants. Ferrari was not a sentimental person when it came to his cars
and those that were not sold were turned to scrap or scavenged for parts.
Ferraris would become common feature at all major sports car events including
Le Mans, the Targa Floria and the Mille Miglia. It was at the Mille Miglia
that Ferrari would claim some of its greatest victories. In 1948 Nuvolari
already in bad health was scheduled to drive a Cisitalia but the car was
not ready in time. Ferrari gave him a car intended for Count Igor Troubetzkoy,
an open Ferrari 166C. Nuvolari realizing that his body was failing him drove
as if the devil himself was in pursuit. By the time the field reached Ravenna,
Nuvolari was already in the lead. Despite losing his fender and later the
engine bonnet nothing could stop the "Flying Mantuan". By the time he reached
Florence he was more than have an hour ahead of Ferrari’s normal lead
driver. The seat had come lose from his car to be replaced by a sack of
oranges and still he drove on driving faster and faster. Some in the crowd
began to fear that the "Great Little Man", knowing that time was running
out was determined to die behind the wheel. Ferrari at one of the last control
stops saw the state of his driver and with tears in his eyes begged his
friend to stop. For even though they had at various times been at each other’s
throats each understood the other. Nuvolari was the last driver that could
look Ferrari in the eye as an equal. Finally at Reggio Emilia what no competitor
could ever accomplish, Nuvolari was beaten by a broken spring. Exhausted
he had to be carried from his car. During
the 1952-53 seasons there was a shortage of Formula 1 cars so the World
Championship would be staged for Formula 2 cars. The Ferrari Tipo 500 would
dominate the championships both years. In the hands of double World Champion
Alberto Ascari Ferrari would win 9 races. For 1954 Ascari left Ferrari and
joined Lancia where he would drive one of the the Jano-designed D50s. Lancia's
hopes for a title were dashed first when the car was late in arriving and
fatally when Ascari died testing a Ferrari sportscar. Lancia was forced
to withdraw and Fiat their parent company turned over all of Lancia's car
over to Ferrari including their designer Vittorio Jano! Ferrari's next challenge
came from the new British teams. Guy Vandervell supplied Ferrari with the
special ThinWall bearings the were used in all of their engines. Vandervell
had been part of the BRM group but quit in disgust. After purchasing and
racing a pair of Ferrari's he built his own cars that eventually beat the
Italian cars. It was only by outlasting the Vanwalls, as the cars were named
was he able to climb back on top. But this was only the beginning of the
British invasion. These manufacturers did not produce their own engines
but concentrated on chassis design and aerodynamics, areas of traditional
weakness for Ferrari. During this period Ferrari began to produce his famous
Gran Turismo car in conjunction with Battista "Pinin" Farina. Victories
at Le Mans and other long distance races made Ferrari famous the world over.
The demands of producing winning sportscars and Grand Prix cars was proving
to much for the relatively small company. In the sixties John Surtees the
1964 World Champion in a Ferrari would complain that Ferrari’s involvement
in sports car racing was hindering its Formula One efforts. Surtees explains
"At Ferrari in those days you started with a handicap. Until Le Mans was
over you couldn't really do the work you wanted to do - and needed to do
- in Formula One. In 1969 Ferrari faced
severe financial strains. There cars were still much sought after but they
were unable to produce enough top meet demand and maintain their racing
program. To their rescue came Fiat and the Agnelli family. Ferrari
was still in charge but a new paymaster was on board. It was with the background
of Fiat's manufacturing and aerospace empire that Ferrari was criticized
for not dominating their smaller British rivals. Another genius, Colin Chapman
was at his peak. In 1975 Ferrari attained something of a renaissance at
the hands of Niki Lauda winning two World Championships and three Constructor
titles in three years. It was three years after Renault had inaugurated
the new Turbo Era in that Ferrari join the bandwagon. Their current Flat-12
engine had reached the end of its development to be replaced by a 1.5-litre
turbo V6. As with most Ferraris the engine turned out to be the car's strong
point while the chassis, based on an antiquated multi-tube spaceframe. The
brilliant driving of Gilles Villeneuve gave the new Ferrari several victories
in 1981 but it was evident that the chassis needed to be upgraded before
the car could seriously challenge for the title. At mid-season the team
was joined by Dr Harvey Postlewaite whose job it was to build an improved
chassis for the following season. Postlewaite wanted to build a carbon-fibre
composite chassis but had to settle on a monocoque with a Nomex honeycomb
skin because of Ferrari’s lack of experience with the new material.
Still with a half decent chassis much was expected of the team in 1982.
It all ended in tragedy with the death of its star drive Villeneuve and
the maiming of his estranged teammate, Didier Pironi, in different accidents.
With the earlier retirement of its last World Champion, Jody Scheckter,
Ferrari was now bereft of any frontline drivers and years would go by before
it could count a top driver as one of its own.  Enzo
Ferrari would not live to see that day; he died at the age of 90 in 1988.
Ferrari continued to drift even though the brilliance of a Prost or Mansell
would bring some victories. In 1993 Jean Todt was brought in to end the
drift. Todt had been in charge of Peugeot's Le Mans winning team and he
hired Niki Lauda as a technical advisor. In 1996 they added two-time World
Champion Michael Schumacher to the equation and 1997 Ross Brawn and Rory
Byrne from Benneton were added to finish the remade team. The season long
battle came down to the last race which ended in controversy. 1998 would
be the year for the return of Ferrari, now it was only left to Williams
and the resurgent McLaren to cooperate! |
