IL PASSIONE THE PASSION
When Ferrari hosted a celebration of 90 years since the Scuderia’s foundation, just before Monza, Italy’s infatuation with the team turned Milan’s Piazza del Duomo into a sea of red…
“Give a child a sheet of paper, some colours, and ask him to design a car: surely it will be red.” Enzo Ferrari was famously dismissive of marketing, but he well knew the value of the marque he built. His Scuderia is more than just a name, it’s woven into the fabric of motorsport fans’ imaginations.
Now 90 years old, Ferrari is a religion in Italy – probably not only in Italy – a totem people love whether it wins or not. And if non-devotees think some of the lustre has worn dull over the course of a decade of toil since Ferrari’s last world championship victories… well, let them come and witness the spectacle here outside the marbleclad extravagance of Milan’s vast 14th-century Duomo, in the heart of the city, four days before the Italian Grand Prix.
The Piazza del Duomo hosts many important temporary exhibitions and celebrations, and welcomes millions of tourists a year, but very few individual events challenge the securitymandated cap of 10,000 people at once. Today the square is crammed to bursting point, and it’s something to behold. There’s no such thing as a defined profile of a Ferrari fan; this eclectic crowd counts children, teenagers, housewives, businessmen and retirees among its serried ranks, united by a single passion.
“We know that the square is full when there are events related to football or music,” explains the owner of a famous bar adjacent to the square, “but in those cases we often close our bar because the risk is that people will be a little too… rough.
“I’ve been here for over 30 years and I never thought I would see an event of this kind linked to the celebration of a brand. I started seeing people walking around with red flags from breakfast time, and I asked my wife what was planned in the square. When she told me that they were celebrating Ferrari’s 90 years I expected to see 1000 or 2000 people, no more.
“Maybe I’ve missed something in these years, or maybe now I understand something more about what Ferrari means for these people.”
Older F1 fans will recall when the stars aligned to deliver a Ferrari victory against the odds in the very next grand prix after Enzo Ferrari’s death in 1988. Today’s celebration of 90 years of the prancing horse has been buoyed by Charles Leclerc’s combative triumph at SpaFrancorchamps, Ferrari’s long-awaited first win of the season and Leclerc’s own maiden victory. The papers have enthusiastically anointed him as one of Italy’s new sporting heroes, but he is just one of many famous faces from the Ferrari firmament due to appear today.
There was no question of ‘selection’ for the invitations, we’re told. “Everyone was invited,”
says the team. “Drivers and key figures from the past and present who helped Ferrari to write its unique history.” It’s tricky to grasp what “everyone” entails until an hour before the celebration kicks off and the guests begin to trickle into the backstage area on a terrace overlooking the square, a very popular location for performances during the Milan fashion week, though today the clothes are predominantly red.
A public area under the stage is reserved for members of numerous Ferrari Clubs worldwide, and they naturally recognise the diverse faces from Ferrari’s history the moment they appear on the terrace. First to appear is Alain Prost, who brought the number-one sticker to Maranello in 1990 but just missed out on delivering a world championship, followed by early 1980s stalwart René Arnoux, Rory Byrne – arguably Ferrari’s most successful designer – and Mario Andretti, whose sparkling career took in stints in Ferrari sportscars as well as F1 machinery.
Piedone – ‘bigfoot’ – as he has always been called by the Italian fans, is possibly one of the most enthusiastic participants in the Ferrari party. He’s flown over from the United States with the sole purpose of attending this event.
“I’m staying here in Italy for 20 hours, then I return home,” Andretti says. “Was it worth it? Damn, I don’t remember seeing so many motorsport enthusiasts outside a circuit. Honestly, I thought a new generation of fans could hardly recognize someone who raced with Ferrari almost 40 years ago. But they were incredible. It excited me to hear ‘Mario, Mario’, I admit it!”
Although many fans have been staking out the best vantage points since the morning, the celebration proper isn’t due to begin until 6pm – and when it does, it opens with a delightful rewind to times past. Enzo Ferrari’s personal secretary Brenda Vernor and a group of mechanics hired by Enzo himself are welcomed onto the stage, but not before they’ve enjoyed an emotional reunion with Andretti. He might not have achieved his greatest F1 successes with Ferrari but he will forever be associated with steadying the ship towards the end of the nightmarish 1982 season, when he made a brief F1 comeback to substitute for the injured Didier Pironi. Ring-rusty he might have been during this febrile period, but he put a Ferrari on pole at Monza – the very circuit where he’d cheered on Alberto Ascari as a teenager.
“And he would have won that race if he didn’t have a power problem,” says Piero Corradini, one of the most famous Ferrari mechanics of the 1980s. “Before heading on to Monza, Mario did a few laps of Fiorano to let us know he had come to
give an important sign in what was a very difficult season for us. And he did it.”
In many ways this is two shows in one: the main event for the fans outside (also screened live on TV) and another, more intimate series of reunions for Ferrari hands past and present backstage. When Lapo Elkann (younger brother of Ferrari bigwig John) encounters current team principal Mattia Binotto the tears flow like a river in flood! Moved by that memorable Spa victory three days earlier, Elkann captures Binotto in an embrace that’s almost suffocatingly strong. “Great job, Mattia, great job…”
Venerable faces give way to fresher ones as members of the Ferrari Driver Academy arrive on stage. None of them has ever experienced anything like this since joining the Maranello family, and the surprise is total.
“Is it always like this with Ferrari here in
Italy?” Formula 3 driver Marcus Armstrong asks team-mate Robert Shwartzman. When Mick Schumacher is presented the atmosphere becomes even more highly charged. His father is a true Ferrari legend and Michael’s enforced absence is keenly felt: when Mick takes the stage the crowd applaud and chant his name, and as he greets them with a short speech in Italian, a reverent silence silence falls across the square.
No celebration of all things Ferrari could pass without a display of the marque’s racing thoroughbreds, and the selection is both interesting and significant. There are F1 cars, of course: the SF90 currently competing in the 2019 world championship; a 312 F1 raced by Chris Amon; Niki Lauda’s 312 T; the 126 CK in which Gilles Villeneuve claimed outstanding victories at Jarama and Monaco; and Michael Schumacher’s all-conquering F2002. But it’s a less well-known and rarely seen racing car that arouses curiosity: the Ferrari 637, a prototype made in 1986 with a view to entering the Us-based CART series. It has never been displayed outside Maranello.
Nothing ultimately came of this putative venture across the pond, and many believe that the 637 was an elaborate bluff by Enzo Ferrari, who was at loggerheads with the FIA over future technical regulations. At the time it was regarded as a signal that Ferrari was willing and able to abandon F1. Many here in Milan view the presence of the car as a lightly coded message to F1 CEO Chase Carey (who is here along with FIA president Jean Todt) at a time when the 2021 rules are still being debated.
Politics take a back seat as more Ferrari drivers from times past take a bow, including Felipe Massa, Giancarlo Fisichella, Luca Badoer, Eddie Irvine and Kimi Räikkönen. The ovation for the
two team-mates from 2007 – the year of Ferrari’s last drivers’ championship – is unstoppable, and the affection of Ferrari’s fans for the Iceman is palpable even though the man himself betrays little emotion behind his signature dark glasses. The screams of the tifosi only begin to subside as the sound of engines demands their attention.
This new noise emanates from Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, who arrive in an Alfa Romeo 1750 and a 750 Monza, and the moment is transformative. It’s like a packed football stadium when the home team scores a goal: a riot of flags, trumpets, and a chorus grows: “Doppietta, doppietta!” This, the Italian term for 1-2, is clearly an exhortation for the weekend to come at Monza.
When they take the stage Vettel attracts the greatest share of the cheers, and that’s no surprise. The Ferrari fan always tends to push the driver who is most in difficulty, and Seb is visibly moved by this display of affection. In the front row, just below the stage, a fan takes off his shirt (a Ferrari one, of course) to show his idol the two tattoos on his chest: on the left the prancing horse, on the right ‘Sebastian Vettel’. Seb is struck, approaches, and signs the t-shirt in gratitude as the crowd chants his name – and Leclerc, too, joins in the chorus.
Charles knows his time will come. And when it does it soon becomes clear that this boy, Ferrari’s latest winner, has entered the hearts of Ferrari’s staff and fans. “Driving for Ferrari has always been a dream,” he tells the crowd, “and what I’m experiencing is a real dream.”
This celebration has offered many new perspectives on Ferrari’s history, with famous people from the past appearing side-by-side on stage for the first time together, including the likes of Jean Alesi, Arturo Merzario, Ivan Capelli,
René Arnoux, Gerhard Berger and Alain Prost. But it’s the final image that’s unique. Onto the stage climb five Ferrari team principals: Cesare Fiorio, Jean Todt, Stefano Domenicali, Maurizio Arrivabene and Mattia Binotto, joined by Louis Camilleri and Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, all key players in chapters that have fed the myth of the Cavallino. “There’s only one president,” the crowd begins to chant as di Montezemolo gets up, bringing tears to his eyes.
It’s a tight squeeze as the photographers work to fit all the guests into one picture. And then, in among the peripheral noise, Leclerc turns the tables on a journalist and asks a question himself – one that now seems prophetic in view of events to come in Monza.
“How many times in the history of the F1 has a driver achieved their second victory immediately after their first?”