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ENZO
Enzo
Ferrari: Founder of the Ferrari automobile manufacturer
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Enzo
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Enzo
Anselmo "the Commendatore" Ferrari (February 20, 1898 –
August 14, 1988) Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian race
car driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari
Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari car
manufacturer.
Enzo
Ferrari (left) and Ilario Bandini
Born
in Modena, Enzo Ferrari grew up with little formal education but
a strong desire to race cars. During World War I he was a
mule-shoer in the Italian Army. His father Alfredo, as well as
his older brother, also named Alfredo, died in 1916 as a result
of a widespread Italian flu outbreak. Ferrari became severely ill
himself in the 1918 flu pandemic and was consequently discharged
from Italian service. Upon returning home he found that the
family firm had collapsed.
Having
no other job prospects, he eventually settled for a job at a
smaller car company called CMN (Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali)
redesigning used truck bodies into small passenger cars. He took
up racing in 1919 on the CMN team, but had little initial
success.
He
left CMN in 1920 to work at Alfa Romeo and racing their cars in
local races he had more success. In 1923, racing in Ravenna, he
acquired the Prancing Horse badge which decorated the fuselage of
Francesco Baracca's (Italy's leading ace of WWI) SPAD S.XIII
fighter, given from his mother, taken from the wreckage of the
plane after his mysterious death. This icon would have to wait
until 1932 to be displayed on a racing car.
As
Ferry Porsche stated in his autobiography "Mein Leben",
the Prancing Horse is, in fact, the coat of arms of the city of
Stuttgart. It's presumably from a German plane Baracca shot down.
The same Prancing Horse is part of the Porsche emblem.
In
1924 Ferrari won the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara. His successes in
local races encouraged Alfa to offer him a chance of much more
prestigious competition. Ferrari turned this opportunity down and
did not race again until 1927. He continued to work directly for
Alfa Romeo until 1929 before starting Scuderia Ferrari as the
racing team for Alfa.
Ferrari
managed the development of the factory Alfa cars, and built up a
team of over forty drivers, including Giuseppe Campari and Tazio
Nuvolari. Ferrari himself continued racing until 1932.
The
support of Alfa Romeo lasted until 1933 when financial
constraints made Alfa withdraw. Only at the intervention of
Pirelli did Ferrari receive any cars at all. Despite the quality
of the Scuderia drivers the company won few victories (1935 in
Germany by Nuvolari was a notable exception). Auto Union and
Mercedes dominated the era.
In
1937 Alfa took control of its racing efforts again and again,
reducing Ferrari to Director of Sports under Alfa's engineering
director. Ferrari soon left, but a contract clause restricted him
from racing or designing for four years.
He
set up Auto-Avio Costruzioni, a company supplying parts to other
racing teams. But in the Mille Miglia of 1940 the company
manufactured two cars to compete, driven by Alberto Ascari and
Lotario Rangoni. During World War II his firm was involved in war
production and following bombing relocated from Modena to
Maranello. It was not until after World War II that Ferrari
sought to shed his fascist reputation and make cars bearing his
name, founding today's Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947.
The
first open-wheeled race was in Turin in 1948 and the first
victory came later in the year in Lago di Garda. Ferrari
participated in the Formula 1 World Championship since its
introduction in 1950 but the first victory was not until the
British Grand Prix of 1951. The first championship came in
1952–53, when the Formula One season was raced with Formula
Two cars. The company also sold production sports cars in order
to finance the racing endeavours not only in Grand Prix but also
in events such as the Mille Miglia and Le Mans. Indeed many of
the firm's greatest victories came at Le Mans (14 victories,
including six in a row 1960–65) rather than in Grand Prix.
Certainly the company was more involved there than in Formula One
during the 1950s and 1960s despite the successes of Juan-Manuel
Fangio (1956), Mike Hawthorn (1958), Phil Hill (1961) and John
Surtees (1964).
In
the 1960s the problems of reduced demand and inadequate financing
forced Ferrari to allow Fiat to take a stake in the company.
Ferrari had offered Ford the opportunity to buy the firm in 1963
for US$18 million but, late in negotiations, Ferrari withdrew.
This decision triggered the Ford Motor Company's decision to
launch a serious European sports car racing program, which
resulted into the Ford GT40. The company became joint-stock and
Fiat took a small share in 1965 and then in 1969 they increased
their holding to 50% of the company. (In 1988 Fiat's holding was
increased to 90%).
Ferrari
remained managing director until 1971. Despite stepping down he
remained an influence over the firm until his death. The input of
Fiat took some time to have effect. It was not until 1975 with
Niki Lauda that the firm won any championships — the skill
of the driver and the ability of the engine overcoming the
deficiencies of the chassis and aerodynamics. But after those
successes and the promise of Jody Scheckter title in 1979, the
company's Formula One championship hopes fell into the doldrums.
1982 opened with a strong car, the 126C2, world-class drivers,
and promising results in the early races.
However,
Gilles Villeneuve was killed in the 126C2 in May, and teammate
Didier Pironi had his career cut short in a violent end over end
flip on the misty back straight at Hockenheim in August. Pironi
was leading the driver's championship at the time; he would lose
the lead as he sat out the remaining races. The team would not
see championship glory again during Ferrari's lifetime. As
Michael Schumacher would come to end ferraris' 21-year drought
for a world title in 2000. Ferrari is currently a dominant team
in F1. It has won at least 1 race a season since 1995.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Enzo Ferrari".
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