In the paddock: Edd Straw

Thirty years ago this week Enzo Ferrari died, taking some of Formula 1’s soul with him. What can today’s team owners – Ferrari especially – learn from his example?

When the first Ferrari, the 125 S prototype, was ready for its inaugural run in March 1947, the man who took the barely completed and bodywork-less car for a quick spin to the nearby village of Formigine and back to Maranello was Enzo Ferrari himself. This week marks 30 years since Enzo’s death at the age of 90, a reminder of an era when one individual could embody a whole team and have a unique, physical connection to the cars that bore their name. How much grand prix racing has changed in just those three decades, let alone the seven since a Ferrari first raced.

The standard question to ask on such anniversaries is something like,‘what would Enzo Ferrari have made of modern F1?’this could often be followed by a shaking of the head, along with a suggestion that everything has gone to the dogs and an agreement that it’s a good thing he’s not here to see it all.

But to do so would be to miss the point of Ferrari. Yes, he was a purist, but above all he was a racer. You could argue he’d hate the current generation of Ers-assisted machinery, but history suggests he would have embraced it. After all, he was a devotee of atmospheric engines until such time as it became abundantly clear that turbocharging was the way to go. Even if there was initial resistance, which there probably wouldn’t have been, if it made a Ferrari win it would be a good thing.

It’s true he wouldn’t approve of the frozen engine formulas, in particular the spell from 2007-13 when the 2.4-litre V8s only changed when the FIA gave express permission. And the idea of a silent power unit, such as used in Formula E, would have been completely alien to him.

Ferrari always saw the engine as the beating heart of the car – understandable for someone who grew up in the pioneering age when automobiles were basically glorified carts. So perhaps after years when engines were little more than performance-balanced components designed to make the car go (and, sometimes, act as air pumps to give downforce), he would revel in the hybrids…

Ferrari had tremendous foresight, particularly when it came to winning. One of the first to grasp the fact that team building could transform a race team, he was a legend of leadership. Perhaps that kind of foresight would extend to understanding the potential of the new powertrains. Infamously, Ferrari started far too late on the 2014 cars both from an engine and chassis perspective – the legacy of Luca di Montezemolo, once Enzo’s key man on the ground, demanding results now rather than laying the foundations for the future. Would Enzo have sensed the greater opportunity a year or two ahead? Very possibly. Ferrari didn’t do badly out of engine-formula changes in 1961 and ’66. Perhaps he’d have seen it as a similar opportunity?

But there’s also every chance that Ferrari’s own tendency to play politics and exert absurd pressure on his people in his later years might have led to problems. Certainly, that love of manipulation and the delight in yielding power over people continues to course through the DNA of Ferrari.

Famously, Ferrari described himself as an‘agitator of men’. This, more than anything, is what makes you wonder if a Ferrari in his prime might have thrived as a team boss today. It’s a fatuous question, but the great individuals tend to adapt for their era.

Grand prix teams are bigger than ever, and even the small ones are almost unmanageably big. Turning them around takes years and, rather than lining up some key people and watching them go, it’s now a complex network of inter-relating departments and individuals that all add up to something. Too often, that something is less than the sum of its parts.

Modern Ferrari, certainly the one of recent years under the recently departed Sergio Marchionne, has actually done pretty well out of all this. While the final years of di Montezemolo in control of Scuderia Ferrari were ones of underachievement, under Marchionne the team has got its groove back. Enzo Ferrari was an autocratic figure, his word was law. Marchionne had the same impact. This makes you wonder what will change with the new leadership in place.

First and foremost, though, Marchionne made Ferrari a reflection of his own outlook and attitudes as much as Enzo did in his day. The fact is, Ferrari has always thrived when it’s had such a figure at the top, just as it did during Jean Todt’s era.

It would be impossible for a figure like Enzo Ferrari to rise today. He built the most successful team in grand prix racing based on his own vision and excellence in team building, and wasn’t just the leader of Ferrari. He was Ferrari.

And as Marchionne showed in recent years, the legacy of Enzo Ferrari’s way of doing things can still echo successfully in F1. No matter how big teams get, you still need a final decision to be taken. Perhaps Ferrari’s new leadership needs to look back at the example of Enzo for that success to continue.

Even three decades after his passing, when it comes to Scuderia Ferrari, the legacy of Enzo must still influence the team’s path.

“PERHAPS FERRARI’S NEW LEADERSHIP NEEDS TO LOOK BACK AT THE EXAMPLE OF ENZO”