MEET THE AUTHOR
Luca Dal Monte
is an accomplished author and automotive industry veteran. tomorrow his mother spoke about, especially after the death of his ‘legitimate’ son Dino in 1956.
The book is a study in the organisation behind the racing…the getting-your-hands-dirty before all the hype and hoopla of a Grand Prix. Enzo Ferrari is a master of organisation, an art he learnt from his father. The habits of being obsessive about orderliness and keeping a record of everything that happened is a lesson for all of us, more so as we become victims of our own devices. Giving up racing himself to managing a racing team that famously was named ‘Scuderia Ferrari’ once Dino was born shows us the cautious and loving side of a man otherwise manic about giving it all it takes to win.
THE INDUSTRIAL SATURN
The book is a study in identifying talent that will help create an unbeatable team. Ferrari had strong views about the socio-economic backgrounds of his drivers and engineers. They needed to come from the more underprivileged sections to have the fire to perform, time after time, to prove a point in a sport that was otherwise seen as opulent and extroverted. De Portago was an exception as a driver. He lost him in the horrific 1957 Mille Miglia. Between 1955 and 1971 Enzo lost seven more drivers at the wheels of his machines. He later lost Gilles Villeneuve. Didier Pironi’s career was cut short. The church called him “The Industrial Saturn”. In the Vatican’s o©cial newspaper, without taking his name, the editorial said, “A modern Saturn becomes an industrial tycoon, he continues to devour his sons. As in the myth, so unfortunately in reality.” But he continued, unabated, in identifying talent that would one day thrill the world with their skills, both racing as well as managing. At 75 years of age, in 1973, he chose a 26-year old Luca di Montezemolo to manage Scuderia Ferrari, a man who went on to head Ferrari from 1991 to 2014.
Enzo Ferrari passed away from leukaemia on August 14, 1988, peacefully holding Lina’s hand. The Grand Old Man’s “long and wearing walk” was finally over. He never attended a Grand Prix race outside of Italy since the 1950s, never took an aircraft or an elevator. True character!
The reviewer is a motorhead, auto industry veteran and brand strategist now building India’s first dedicated school of automobile design