Former Ferrari president, Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo, has spoken about the Maranello team at the “Festival dello sport” in the splendid setting of Trento. The unforgettable head of the Prancing Horse, during his speech, shared some anecdotes from his long Formula 1 experience and offered his perspective on the present and future of the category. Exactly fifty years ago, he became an assistant to “Il Drake” and the head of the racing team. It was an enormous responsibility for a 25-year-old who had some experience in rallying as a driver, suddenly catapulted into the leadership of a brand that was already a legend.
For Montezemolo, Enzo Ferrari was a source of inspiration and motivation: “Ferrari explained to me that you should always look forward and never give up, and be even more focused when you win than when you lose. If you lose, it’s easier to find the capacity to react, but when you win, you might risk saying we are the best and stop there.”
These were the years of the happy sporting and human partnership with another Formula 1 legend, Niki Lauda, considered by the Italian manager one of his dearest friends. In fact, both as a driver and later as a consultant for the historic Italian racing team, Niki significantly contributed to the success of the Scuderia. The return to the helm of GES in 1991 was tumultuous. Years of failures but also investments that led the Maranello team to break a 21-year spell. The golden era of Scuderia Ferrari is inevitably linked to the arrival of Michael Schumacher in 1996: “An exceptional man who raised the standards of physical preparation, with a strong sense of teamwork, and the ability to approach every race with the same concentration as a qualifying lap.”
Regarding the current Formula 1, dominated by the Red Bull – Max Verstappen partnership, Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo reveals a backstage story concerning the three-time Dutch world champion. Max had been followed by Ferrari since his karting days. In 2014, Max Verstappen was only sixteen years old but had already won almost all of the most prestigious international karting races when he participated in the “Florida Winter Series,” an event organized by the Ferrari Driver Academy in the United States, held on the tracks of Sebring, Palm Beach, and Homestead.
Max Verstappen completed the training program for aspiring drivers behind Antonio Fuoco and Lance Stroll, and the FDA did not continue to follow the young Dutchman, despite him being the youngest student in the entire winter championship organized by the Ferrari Driver Academy. Later, Red Bull, thanks to Franz Tost’s recommendation, who was enchanted by Max Verstappen’s performances in the rain at Norisring, included him in their junior team.
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The FDA focused on Lance Stroll, who joined the Ferrari program in 2015. Time has since shown the glaring error and that Max could have been the last gift of Luca di Montezemolo’s management if he had only received the right feedback. As for the current level of competitiveness of the Scuderia, the former President of the Prancing Horse is succinct and drastic: “I don’t like where Ferrari is today. I don’t like celebrating a third place, which, to me, was a defeat. The drivers? I think they are the least of the problems; the problem is the car…”
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