Enzo Ferrari is the man turned into a myth… being aware of being a myth. On February 18, 1898, in Modena, Enzo Anselmo Ferrari was born, son of Alfredo and Adalgisa. A boy who, from a very young age, showed an unbridled passion for cars and who would become not only the great manufacturer, but also one of the most famous Italians in history throughout the world and one of the most influential of the Novecento .
“To think that Enzo Ferrari was born in the 19th century seems incredible,” said former Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne in 2017. “His lesson is more current than ever and his modernity is absolute. He was a man with the ability to see and directing people and resources beyond the ordinary. He had a strong entrepreneurial spirit and exceptional courage.”
“One wonders what goals he could achieve today if he had the technical means and knowledge of our days. The legacy he left in the world remains a source of pride for all of Ferrari and for Italy in general.”
Enzo Ferrari always wanted to live up to his fame. His life could have seemed like a fairy tale and instead became a legend, before the chronicles existed.
His passage left a deep and indelible groove: the trail of someone who was predestined to leave a mark and who knew how to get ahead of time, as if the hands of the clock had stopped just when their fast cars were fighting against the last tenth of a second, the that separated a good result from a tragedy.
The best champions have defied the laws of physics in search of a victory, a championship title with their red single-seaters, the Ferraris. King Enzo did not believe in destiny, but destiny had believed in him: he had to point the way, the starting point of a sporting phenomenon that later also became an industrial and social phenomenon.
Enzo was a symbol of Italy abroad. He left a testimony fully engraved in the DNA of those who breathe the air of Maranello and of the entire competition: Ecclestone always said that there would be no F1 without Ferrari.
John Surtees with Ferrari boss Enzo Ferrari in the pitlane
Enzo Ferrari was uncompromising with himself and with his collaborators, disciples who had to believe in him more than he believed in himself.
Cesare de Agostini wrote the following: “There were those who thanked heaven that the man from Maranello started making racing cars and did not dedicate himself to politics, because otherwise he would have become a dictator. He tried to dominate events, never to be dominated”.
Throughout life, both at birth and at death, his existence was always shrouded in mystery: the man of the future was rooted in the 19th century.
The birth certificate speaks of February 20, 1898, but his mother always celebrated it on the 18th. According to the story, the doubt is due to the fact that a heavy snowfall forced Father Alfredo to delay the registration of the happy birth for a couple of days. . However, the weather reports of the time in Modena testify that it was cold and rainy, but there is no trace of that snowfall!
He came into the world quietly and left on tiptoe 90 years later : it happened at the end of August, when Italy was on vacation. It was Sunday, August 14, 1988, coincidentally when there were no races. The engines were off. He had already guaranteed a future for his factory by joining FIAT . He could now quietly close the game, as if he too had planned to leave the scene.
It seems as if his last wish was that the announcement of his death not be published: on August 16 there were no newspapers for the Ferragosto festival and Don Enzo was able to gamble for the last time on journalists, a profession to which he was linked by a relationship love-hate, with disgust and admiration in equal parts.
Today his story continues. His legend.
Luca di Montezemolo knew during his long management of the Cavallino to continue the myth. Another “visionary”, Sergio Marchionne , received the baton until his death in 2018. Louis Camilleri took over and after his resignation John Elkann served as interim CEO until in June 2021 Benedetto Vigna took over with the desire to honor the creator with a title from Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz more than 120 years after the birth of Enzo…
Photo by: Actualfoto
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Photo by: LAT Images
Photo by: Ferrari Media Center
