A Look at Ferrari Past and Present
By Winston Goodfellow

Piero Ferrari is the son of company founder Enzo Ferrari. He has seen the famed Italian constructor of the world’s most charismatic sports and racing cars go from a small company to the current international powerhouse. That makes him the perfect window into Ferrari’s illustrious past and exciting present and future.

Congenial, relaxed, and possessor of a low-key sense of humor that puts most anyone at ease, Piero Ferrari was born in 1945. Though he had a love of the sea, sports and power boats as a child, what dominated his youth were “cars and, if I could say, engines. I love engines. When I was young, in front of my house was a mechanic who worked on motorcycles. He rebuilt engines and performed heavy maintenance, so I was always looking at engines.”

Ferrari’s college career was brief. He began studying economics in 1964, but that was a temporary stop on his way to working at his father’s firm. The following year his grandmother died, and “She always told my father that my wish was to work in the factory,” he says. “After she passed away he told me to come every week to the factory.”

He had strong dislike of economics, so he started working on the cars. “I soon thought, ‘Well, so much for the university!” he chuckles. “It was the end of college and the beginning of my job at Ferrari.”

Piero began working with Federico Giberti, an old time employee from his father’s days with Alfa Romeo in the 1930s. No sooner were his feet on the ground than he was involved in Ferrari’s competition efforts.

“My father decided to produce the Dino Sport, the racing car, of which we made about 20,” Ferrari says. “I organized the production of all the components to produce them. We made them in the production department because back then everything was much smaller and easier, less complex than it is today. I had a copy of the drawings the racing department gave to the purchasing department, and would make all the orders to the suppliers. I also organized the production of the cars.”

In the mid-1970s Piero began to carry a much bigger stick. “My first real involvement happened during in the (Niki) Lauda period,” he remembers. “He won two Formula 1 championships with us, and I was watching over the organization of the racing department, the people and the purchasing.

“That period really started my complete involvement in racing. From then on, my father used me to interface with a lot of problems. He was dealing through me with many people inside the factory, using me because I was available even in the evening, when we were at home. After dinner he was calling, ‘Piero, come down, come down.’ Every evening, he had a problem. ‘Remember tomorrow...’ he would say.”

Ferrari remained an integral part of the competition scene until 1988, the year his father passed away. “It seems like yesterday,” he says, laughing. “With all the fighting, fighting with my father. After that, I am here in the executive offices.”

So how is Formula 1 different today than during his reign in the pits? “It is now is an activity that needs so many people,” he explains.” The involvement of our factory is incredible. The financial effort and the people you must make available to F-1 is immense. You need the best and it is such a big effort, that we don't have the financial capacity for another activity.

“What makes us different from the other teams is they look after the chassis aerodynamics and the racing team, but don’t have an engine program; they are supplied by companies such as BMW or Mercedes. We look after our engines, and that multiplies the number of problems that have to solved every day by two or three.”

Though Ferrari has dominated Formula 1 for the past several years Piero still maintains a soft spot for endurance racing. This type of motorsport truly put Ferrari on the map during its formative years from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, the company competing with cars that were as beautiful and seductive as Italian bombshells Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. Ferrari won 13 world championships between 1953 and 1973, and conquered Le Mans nine times.

This explains why Piero relished Ferrari’s successful return to endurance racing in the 1990s with the 333SP. “(Driver and racing team owner) Gianpiero Moretti at MOMO was a good friend of mine for over 20 years, and he dreamed of finishing his career driving a Ferrari,” Piero recalls. “We investigated and found it was possible to make ten cars where maybe we would make some money, but for sure we wouldn't lose. (Ferrari CEO Luca Cordero di) Montezemolo accepted this proposal, and we made the car with the help of a few F-1 engineers.” Suitably, the 333 SP would go on to win several championships, and Moretti would win races at both Daytona and Sebring driving one.

Today Piero Ferrari can only marvel at the success Ferrari is experiencing. As this article is being written Ferrari just on the verge of its fourth consecutive Formula 1 driver’s championship and fifth consecutive constructor’s championship. Its road cars are equally hot. The 360 Modena coupe and Spider still have waiting lists and the $650,000 Enzo saw so much demand that production was increased almost 20%.

Also occupying everyone’s time is Ferrari’s purchase of arch-rival Maserati. A string of new products is the result of the 1998 acquisition, the most recent being the beautiful $90,000+ Quattroporte sedan that will go on sale in summer 2004.

When I queried Piero if it seemed strange to him to see a handful of Maseratis parked in Ferrari’s courtyard, “at first it did,” he chuckles. “But it seems to be a good thing, a good fit for both companies. I would really prefer to have them part of our family than part of someone else’s.”

That point was brought home in September when Maserati announced a technical alliance with Germany’s Audi.