Enzo Ferrari has become a figure of mythical proportions in the world of Formula 1. Here we look at the man behind the legend.
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In the world of Formula 1, there is perhaps no team that is as synonymous with longevity and success as the team built by Enzo Ferrari.
The Ferrari F1 team are the only team in history to have competed in every active F1 season. They’re also the most successful team in terms of race wins and championships – both driver’s and constructor’s – won.
Little wonder then, that the man who birthed the team has achieved legendary status of almost mythic proportions. But how much do we know about the man behind the legend?
Here we shall take a deep dive into the man behind a team that shaped motorsport history.
He began racing in 1919 but his big break came in 1920 at Alfa Romeo. He joined the car brand as a Grand Prix driver and would eventually win his first race in 1923. More success followed in 1924, where he won three races.
However, he was affected by the deaths of of Ugo Sivocci in 1923 and Antonio Ascari in 1925. After that, he did carry on racing but his heart wasn’t really in it.
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Yet the racing bug had bitten him and he was developing an interest in running a team of his own. At the end of his racing career, he began working on making Alfa Romeo race cars.
Eventually he built a team of his own in 1929 and it was dubbed Scuderia Ferrari.
But their real history-defining moment came in 1950, when the World Driver’s Championship was first contested. Ferrari registered for the newly-formed tournament, which was the predecessor to what is now known as Formula 1.
This makes Ferrari the only team to have raced in every single edition of F1. And it all started from a man who wanted to simply develop race cars.
The early years of Formula 1 saw Ferrari establish itself as one of the big players in the sport. Alfa Romeo won the first two world championships in 1950 and 1951 with Giuseppe Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio, respectively.
However, Ferrari won the next two world titles in 1952 and 1953 thanks to Alberto Ascari. More success would follow, with Fangio himself winning a title with the Scuderia in 1956.
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Mike Hawthorn (1958), Phil Hill (1961) and John Surtees (1964) would also win titles with the Maranello-based team. However, few knew at the time that Ferrari would struggle through the ’60s till the early ’70s.
They were still able to attract the best drivers to the team. However, the best drivers meant nothing when the cars were not up to speed – as Ferrari would eventually find out.
Things were not helped thanks to an event now known as ‘The Great Walkout’. In 1962, Ferrari’s notoriously combative management style came to a head and led to many senior members of the team walking out.
They would join the newly-formed Automobili Turismo e Sport (ATS). The team lured drivers Phil Hill and Giancarlo Baghetti from Ferrari as well.
Enzo Ferrari and co. responded by promoting younger drivers and junior engineers. Their bold strategy worked; with John Surtees at the helm, they would win the title in 1964 and ATS would eventually fold.
But financial troubles would persist and eventually forced Ferrari to sell a minority stake of the team to Fiat.
He wanted to sell it to Ford but the American company did not want Ferrari at the helm of the racing team. Fiat agreed to his demand, however, and thus the deal was done.
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Much has been said about the way he chose to run his teams. Ferrari looked to pit drivers against each other to improve performances.
“He thought that psychological pressure would produce better results for the drivers,” said Ferrari team driver Tony Brooks. “He would expect a driver to go beyond reasonable limits.
“You can drive to the maximum of your ability, but once you start psyching yourself up to do things that you don’t feel are within your ability it gets stupid. There was enough danger at that time without going over the limit.”
The 70s did see Ferrari gain a degree of success, which was welcome given how British teams dominated in the 1960s.
Niki Lauda won the title in 1975 and 1977, whereas Jody Scheckter won it in 1979. However, the South African’s title win would be the final one Ferrari got to see in his lifetime.
The 1980s brought another decline and perhaps the biggest shock came in 1988, when Enzo Ferrari himself passed away. He died on August 14, 1988 but the cause of death remains unknown.
The Italian GP of that year was held just weeks after his passing, and true to form saw a Ferrari 1-2 with Gerhard Berger winning the race and Michele Alboreto in second.
His legacy, however, remains untarnished – a result of the team carefully marketing him and creating an invincible aura around him.
He was made a Cavaliere del Lavoro in 1952, besides being a Cavaliere and Commendatore in the 1920s.
Ferrari also received a number of honorary degrees – the Hammarskjold Prize in 1962, the Columbus Prize in 1965, and the De Gasperi Award in 1987.
In 1994, he was posthumously inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2000.
In his youth, Enzo Ferrari would serve in the Italian army during World War I. His time in the Army ended when he was diagnosed with the Spanish flu, for the war itself was in the midst of the pandemic.
But it was after the War when he was discharged that he began his other career – in motorsports.
Indeed, it’s also worth noting that the prancing horse logo now associated with Ferrari came about due to the War.
The logo was created and sported by Italian fighter plane pilot Francesco Baracca. During WWI, Baracca gave Ferarri a chain with the logo on it.
After Baracca’s death in 1918, Ferrari used the symbol as a tribute on the Alfa Romeo cars he built – and it would eventually become synonymous with the Ferrari brand.
