Piero Ferrari: My father did not strive for victories at all costs

Ten days before the New Year, a new film “Ferrari” was released in Russia, the action of which takes place in the spring of 1957. Those few months in the life of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the legendary Italian company, were filled with very important events.

We have talked about this biopic, and many have probably already watched it and know that one of the heroes is 12-year-old Piero Lardi, the youngest son of Commendatore. Only in 1990 did he take his father’s surname, and now the 78-year-old Ferrari shareholder shared his comments on the new work of American filmmakers.

Question: Why was 1957 chosen?
Piero Ferrari: A lot happened that year. Everyone remembers this year because then the last Mille Miglia race took place, which ended in a terrible tragedy. Ferrari driver Alfonso de Portago and his co-driver were killed in the accident, which also killed nine spectators, including children. This was a real tragedy for all of motorsport.

Later that year it was revealed that my father had two families. One included his wife Laura and their son Dino, who had died a year earlier, and the second family included me and my mother, Lina Lardi.

Question: Did Enzo Ferrari and de Portago really only meet before the Mille Miglia?
Piero Ferrari: In fact, not everything was as shown in the film – their meeting took place a year earlier. Even then, De Portago started working with Ferrari, and he was a very unusual character. This is a Spanish aristocrat who, let’s say, led a very free lifestyle and participated in races exclusively because of his passion for motor racing.

I remember writing a school essay on this subject in 1957. My father was very concerned when the 1956 Winter Olympics were held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, and de Portago was one of the members of the Spanish bobsleigh team. My father kept saying, “If he gets injured, he won’t play for our team anymore.”

Question: Did you really want Alfonso de Portago’s autograph?
Piero Ferrari: No, this is an artistic assumption of the film authors, because at that time it was not customary to ask for autographs. At least I didn’t collect them. But as far as I remember, my friends and my peers didn’t do this either.

However, this idea is well implemented in the film, as motor racing was indeed very popular and the drivers were the center of attention.

Q: Enzo Ferrari in the film is a man willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of victory. Was he really like that?
Piero Ferrari: No, he wasn’t like that. He wanted to win, that was always his goal, no matter what challenge he took on. But he did not strive for victories at all costs. Most importantly, he didn’t want to endanger the lives of his riders. In fact, after serious incidents – the first was that accident at the Mille Miglia circuit, and the second was the fatal accident of Lorenzo Bandini – he returned home late in the evening and said: “That’s it, I have enough of this, it can’t go on any longer, we have to stop.”

Then I went into the office on Monday morning, saw my employees and engineers and said, “So, what do we do now? We must move forward and ensure that such accidents do not happen again.”

This is how he found strength and courage, which kept him moving forward.

Question: Is it true that Enzo Ferreri spent a lot of time in the Ferrari factory?
Piero Ferrari: Yes, he really spent a lot of time in the company – among the machines, engines, delving into all the technical details. I remember him asking every year in May which engine would be prepared for the Monza race?

He intervened in several projects, but only adjusted the objectives, not the technical details – for all this the engineers were responsible. But he took all these processes very seriously.

Question: Did Enzo Ferrari really only trust his inner circle, as shown in the film?
Piero Ferrari: Yes it’s true. He trusted people, but at the same time he said that trust is not something you gain in installments. You either trust this or that person, or you don’t trust him. There were people he trusted indefinitely, but there were others – not that he doubted them, but he asked the heads of the departments to arrange checks on them.

Question: Is it true that many important people visited Maranello personally to buy a Ferrari?
Piero Ferrari: Yes it’s true. A very good example are the visits of Prince Bernhard, consort of the Queen of the Netherlands. He was a Ferrari customer and visited Maranello every two or three years – he came in his Ferrari and picked up a new car. He also came to our house, often had lunch with us and was a good friend of my father.

There were other famous people, including my father who was friends with the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, who visited us more than once with Ingrid Bergman. This was a special couple, and their car was also famous. I recently saw this car in Maranello, in the Ferrari Classiche division, which deals with the restoration of historic vehicles.