Enzo Ferrari’s secret to becoming a legend – Beat everyone at everything!
Michael Schumacher and Ferrari F1 Team, celebrate Driver’s Title and Constructors Championship – 2001
Enzo Ferrari’s storied past will likely continue to be shared, way beyond our time. Because of this, we recently commemorated Enzo’s greatest achievements, in honor of his 117th birthday, on Feb. 18th. In doing so, we discovered that there was so much more to the story of Ferrari and that it wasn’t just about an Italian guy who liked racing fast cars. Like any true supercar fan, we kept reading on.
Do a little digging into Mr. Ferrari, and you will quickly find out that he was much like the founder of Apple Computers, Steve Jobs. An intelligent innovator and a competitor in their own right, both men found it impossible to be complacent or accept a second-place finish. Ever! Enzo’s tough, by any means necessary, attitude played a major factor in the marque’s rise to success. To help illustrate that point, we dove into Ferrari’s history even further, and we’ve compiled what we think are some of the greatest contributing factors to their success for nearly 70 years.
Ferrari Fast Facts
- Despite modern day perception, one of Ferrari’s biggest rivalries was with Ford Motor Group and Henry Ford II himself, after Enzo refused to partner with Ford in the development of a GT car.
- Ferrari is the only constructor to compete in every single F1 race since 1950.
- Scuderia Ferrari is the only team to build each part of its single seater racecars, in-house.
- First in almost all F1 racing categories, is Ferrari: Team starts, Wins, Pole positions, Podium finishes, Fastest Laps, Constructors Championships, and Drivers championships.
- One man, Dario Benuzzi, was Ferrari’s “primary new-vehicle development driver for 35 years” at the Pista di Fiorano (Ferrari’s own test track). Meaning he’s instructed almost all notable Ferrari racing drivers, creating a recipe for success through consistency.
- Fiat-Chrysler now owns 90% of Ferrari S.p.A, the other 10% is owned by his son, Piero Ferrari. Keeping it all in the family.
- It takes over three weeks to build a Ferrari from start to finish, while it takes roughly thirteen hours to build a sedan at Toyota. Talk about quality control!
A simple search for Ferrari will reveal thousands of factoids about both the manufacturer and Enzo himself, but we thought seven was a perfect number to end on – seeing as they are approaching their seventh decade in business. The real takeaway is that almost every product to receive a Ferrari badge will carry a piece of Enzo’s passion, especially when it’s being rolled off the assembly line. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of driving one of Ferrari’s creations, it’s evident that there is a passion, emotion, and years racing heritage that helped shape each vehicle. For those of you that have yet to experience what it’s like to drive a world-class Italian Supercar for yourself, well, we’re wondering what you’re waiting for?
Here’s a taste of what seven decades of motorsports excellence has given us:
Sources: Ferrari / Motor Trend / HowStuffWorks
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