F1 | Montezemolo on Enzo Ferrari: “I have to thank him because he always believed in me”

Luca di Montezemolo represents an important part of the Ferrari legend. Over the years the Italian manager has experienced the world of Cavallino in various roles, from the beginning as an observer, through the role of team manager, up to the position of President which he held until 2014: decades in which Montenzemolo wrote pages of Ferrari history and brought the Rossa back to the top of the world, both in motorsport and on the road, making the brand from the Maranello company one of the most famous, if not the most famous, in the automotive field.

The entrepreneur from Bologna retraced the stages of his sporting career in an interview granted to the microphones of "Beyond The Grid", the official Formula 1 podcast, from his arrival at Ferrari to the court of Enzo Ferrari up to the winning cycle with Michael Schumacher as President of the Cavallino.

“It's a funny story, because at the time I was a rally driver for the Lancia team and I was invited to a famous Italian radio show where it was possible to ask questions live to the guests of this show” – said Montezemolo, explaining how he landed in Ferrari -. “I received a question in which they told me that racing was dangerous, useless and only for the rich. It was difficult to respond by explaining to him that he was talking a lot of bullshit... Enzo Ferrari usually listened to this program and called directly to the program and asked 'who is this guy? I like it, he's answering the questions the right way. If you have the opportunity to come to Maranello, I would be happy to meet you in person' and when I returned to Italy at Christmas, because at that time I was attending university in New York, I went to Maranello to meet Enzo Ferrari. I loved racing and was also a driver for the official Lancia team. At the end of our conversation, Enzo Ferrari told me 'I would like to meet people like you, young guys ready to help'. I told him not to tell me twice because I would be ready to come to Maranello immediately after completing my studies at university. When I finished university in July, I started doing New York-Maranello non-stop and started working to work for Ferrari. He sent me to Brands Hatch for my observer race and it was fantastic, because the Ferrari was 15th and 16th, way back on the grid. So I phoned him on the Saturday and he said 'Luca, why don't you tell the team manager to go back and not race tomorrow? I don't want to see Ferrari make such a poor impression in the race.' It was my first race, I was shy and had just arrived, then we went to the race and Ferrari decided to stop for a few Grands Prix. I remember it was 1973, we returned to the track after a couple of races in Austria with just one car. I became his personal assistant for a few months and then I was appointed team manager. In 1974 we hired Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni” added the former President of the Cavallino, retracing his first years in Maranello.

Over the years, Enzo Ferrari has been a point of reference for Montezemolo, from whom the Bologna entrepreneur feels he has learned two fundamental aspects for his work: “He had great experience. The first thing you need to know is that I am from Bologna, so my mentality is not very distant from that of Enzo Ferrari, in particular for the relationships he had with the people around him. I learned a lot from him, but if I had to be brief and concise, say that from him I learned to think, to be harder when you win than when you lose, because when you win maybe you think you're the best and you relax, while naturally when you lose you are forced to react. A second aspect is to always look forward, never look back, in terms of technology and organization. This is what I learned and I have to thank him, because although I was only 26 years old he gave me a lot of power and, at that moment, it was not at all easy to take on such a great responsibility from a person like Enzo Ferrari."

“I had a beautiful relationship with him from a personal point of view” – Montezemolo continued -. He was my advisor when it came to girls! I remember that when the factory was closed in August and there was no one there, we usually went to eat in the surrounding hills. He also gave me a lot of advice about my private life and I have to thank him because he always believed in me. I remember when I went to first meetings with Bernie Ecclestone, Colin Chapman, Ken Tyrrell and Teddy Mayer, I was a very young boy representing Ferrari and I wasn't used to writing down what was said, but I still gave an account of what had happened. Once we went back and Enzo Ferrari said to me 'but why don't you write down what happened on a piece of paper?'. He was able to motivate people, sometimes perhaps too much, pitting one against the other because he tried to get the most out of each of us."

It is known that the founder of the historic Cavallino brand had a particular relationship with the drivers, from Niki Lauda to Gilles Villeneuve, but what mattered before anything else was the car, the Ferrari itself. Montezemolo tried to explain this relationship, also analyzing the hierarchies within the team: “First of all, the drivers were obviously important to Enzo Ferrari. But before the drivers there is the car, there is the brand. He was very jealous of having the car first and then the driver second, not vice versa. From what I saw, he was always very close to the riders, asking their opinions after the race, but always making his own decisions. In other words, the drivers are the drivers, the engineers are the engineers and the boss is me. Clear rules and responsibilities. Ferrari was also always curious to see what was happening in the other teams and ask for information, sometimes even indirectly and secretly to get news on the other drivers" concluded the former President of the Ferrari.