Formula 1 would not be understood without Ferrari and Ferrari would not be understood without Formula 1. A relationship of 72 years of history in which Il Cavallino Rampante has become an icon of competition and where any child associates a red car with a vehicle manufactured in Maranello.
However, on August 14, 1988 , that Rosso Corsa that accompanied each and every single-seater of the Great Circus was turned off after its founder, the incomparable Enzo, left forever.
Il Drake , as he was also known, was not only the flame that ignited the spark for racing in a small Italian town, but he dared to put himself at the controls of the machines of the time to compete against other drivers and earn a name in the world of motorsports.
The story in which he adopted the already world-famous Cavallino in his cars is curious, and it is all due to a victory he won at the Savio circuit, a track with more than 44 kilometers in length.
With an Alfa Romeo RL , the 25-year-old covered the six laps in 2 hours, 52 minutes and 35 seconds to climb to the top of the podium, as well as signing the fastest lap of the test, stopping the clock at 28 minutes. and 32 seconds.
It was June 17, 1923 , and that triumph, of which there is very little documentation in the press of the time, served the Italian to visit the city of Ravenna, to the east of Emilia-Romagna, where Count Enrico Baracca was waiting for him, the father of the historic aviator fallen in combat, Francesco, who used a rampant horse in the fuselage of his aircraft.
With the insistence of Countess Paolina , mother of the aviation figure, as she assured Enzo that she would grant him luck, the founder of the historic brand decided to add Il Cavallino to his vehicles.
In this way, what would become the best-known car emblem in the world began, but it was not the first success in the career of what would eventually become Il Commendatore .
To do this, we must go back to October 5, 1919 , when Enzo had turned 20 and was preparing to take his 2.3-liter, four-cylinder CMN 15/20 to the top at a date in Parma-Poggio di Berceto . Very young, with little experience and number 29 on the back of his vehicle, the Italian garnered eleventh position overall, as well as fourth place in his category, a more than worthy result for a newcomer to the competition.
However, it was on October 24, 1920 that the Ferrari legend began. On the roads of the Madonia mountains, in the province of Palermo in the northeast of Sicily, Enzo was preparing to beat his rivals with an Alfa Romeo 20/40 on the Targa Florio track, and although it was not an overall victory, it was It was the fastest in its category, thus initiating a union with the Turin firm that lasted for more than a decade until its goodbye to racing on August 9, 1933 at the Tres Provincias track.
The reason for his withdrawal from the circuits was due to the birth of his son, and that is because he promised his wife, Laura Dominica , that “if the child was born well, he would definitely leave it”. Decades later, the Ferrari surname is branded in gold letters in every history book, and only time can tell how far Il Cavallino will go.
