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| Enzo Ferrari |
Enzo Ferrari
Ferrari is the only team that has contested the World Championship since its inception. There have been times when the red cars have been missing from races, and these usually coincided with one of Enzo Ferrari's periodic rants against perceived injustice. But always he came back, usually stronger than ever...
Although he died in August 1988, Ingeniere Ferrari's spirit still pervades Maranello, where his cars have always been built, and the prancing horse still exudes the charisma it did in his heyday. A former race driver who enjoyed limited success for Alfa Romeo, Ferrari really made his name running that manufacturer's Grand Prix team before starting his own marque in 1947. Before long, Ferrari had attained legendary status, and the 'Old Man' assiduously did all he could to foster it.
Driven by grief for the death of his son, Dino, he could be autocratic, bombastic, frequently petulant, irascible, wheedling and inspired. He ran his team with an iron hand and almost complete disdain for the majority of his drivers who, he believed, should be happy simply to sit in a red car. In 1961, he did nothing to stop all of his World Championship winning managers from walking out after internal strife initiated by his wife, Laura. Backing down in an argument was not within his character unless, of course, he felt that he could benefit from it.
For all Enzo Ferrari's shortcomings, his cars are part of the very fabric of Grand Prix motor sport, an intrinsic aspect of sporting legend. He came from the pioneering days of motor racing, and was part of the new wave in the period when it graduated from the old city-to-city road races to the structured World Championship that was inaugurated in 1950. Like Frank Williams, for Ferrari it was never yesterday that mattered, nor even today, but tomorrow. His cars, like his drivers, were usually discarded when they had achieved their purpose.