The Man

February 1898 in Modena, the son of a metalworker, Enzo Anselmo Ferrari decided on his career at the tender age of ten. Enzo previously had ambitions of being a journalist, particularly a sports journalist, until his father took him to a motor race in nearby Bologna, where Ferrari saw Felice Nazzaro’s Fiat win the Coppa Florio road race. From that moment, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

Following the death of his father and brother within months of each other in 1916 and 1917, Ferrari was conscripted into the army, right in the middle of World War 1. He served as a blacksmith, working with the artillery but spent much of his service career in and out of hospital dogged by ill-health, being discharged in 1918.

Upon discharge, Ferrari came armed with a letter of introduction from the army, but this failed to get him a job with Fiat. Instead, he started work in Turin with an engineer rebuilding redundant military vehicles for the civilian market. Ferrari used to take the vehicles from Turin to Milan where they were rebodied. This is where he met Ugo Sivocci, a racing and test driver for CMN, another company converting military vehicles, but one that had sporting ambitions. Sivocci introduced Ferrari to CMN and in October 1919 Ferrari enjoyed his first taste of competition, finishing fourth in class in the Parma Poggio di Berceta hillclimb. In November, both Ferrari and Sivocci drove their cars down to Sicily to compete in the Targa Florio, finishing 9th and 7th respectively.

Ferrari and Sivocci left CMN in 1920 to join Alfa, a company with an already established racing reputation. Enzo finished 2nd in the 1920 Targa Florio and enjoyed a small number of other minor successes, but failed to really achieve his racing ambitions due to continual ill health and his awareness of his own limitations. Sivocci was killed in a practice accident for the Italian Grand Prix in 1923, at which point Ferrari started to question his own driving abilities. Ferrari was effectively retired from driving at this point as Alfa considered his organisational and managerial capabilities far outweighed his prowess as a driver. Ferrari continued to manage the Alfa team before he totally retired from driving in January 1932 when his son Dino was born.

In 1929 Ferrari was given the opportunity to set up Scuderia Ferrari (the Ferrari ‘stable’ of racing cars), under the Prancing Horse banner, running Alfa cars. This was to effectively become the works team when Alfa got into financial difficulties in the mid 1930’s, indirectly supported by government funds that were keeping the company alive. Scuderia Ferrari became one of the most successful racing teams until the introduction of Mercedes and Auto-Union, just prior to World War 2.

When, in 1938, Alfa reformed the works team, Ferrari went back as manager, a return that was short lived, since Ferrari had never been able to tolerate those he didn’t respect. Within a year, the lack of freedom to do what he wanted and the distinct clashes of personality came to a head. Ferrari, and a small group of colleagues, left with a financial settlement, but also a letter of agreement restricting him from racing under his own name, in direct completion with Alfa, for four years. It didn’t last. In 1940 Ferrari built two Fiat based, eight cylinder sports cars to compete in the Mille Miglia, entering them under the Auto Avio Construzione banner, Ferraris own engineering company based at the Scuderia Ferrari headquarters in Modena. He didn’t use the Ferrari name, simply calling the cars 815’s, 8 for the eight cylinders and 15 for the capacity, 1.5 litres. Both cars led their classes before retiring. Was this the shape of things to come?

The course of World War 2 brought racing to a standstill, but by the end of the war, Ferraris obligation to Alfa had expired but his ambition was still strong. In December 1946, Autocar reported on a ‘New Italia Make’, Ferrari was to launch the 125, three models based upon a similar chassis, the Sports, Competition and Grand Prix. Ferrari was already well known and the marque was given an enthusiastic welcome. This press announcement heralded the start of Ferraris career as a manufacturer, and the rest as they say, is history...

Ferrari died in his Italian home town on August 14th 1988.