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As the F1 season comes to an end, we would like to revisit some of the rich history that Alfa Romeo shared in F1. Specifically with one of the most well known names, Enzo Ferrari. It has been over 90 years since Enzo Ferrari raced with Alfa Romeo, but his legacy lives on in history as the one of the greatest racers. But why is that? To understand his influence on Alfa Romeo and F1, we must first look into the history of his path to racing.
Enzo Ferrari was born on February 18, 1898 In Modena, Italy. At the age of 10 he had his first introduction to racing when his father took his brother and him to a race, Via Emilia, in Bologna, Italy. 8 years later the death of his father and brother led him to start working and a year later he would join the Italian Army. In 1919, after his honorable discharge, he started working as a test driver for Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali, after not being able to work for Fiat. He was promoted quite quickly to their racing division where he raced that same year in his first official race, the Parma-Poggio di Berceto. After this, an opportunity to race for Alfa Romeo opened up which launched his legendary racing career.
Quickly after joining Alfa Romeo, it led to a series of successes for the young driver. It all started off with a fifth place finish at Targa Florio and shortly after, a second place win at Mugello. It was not until 1923 during the Circuito del Savio when he had his first P1 win that attracted the attention of the Count and Countess Baracca, parents to legendary Italian World War 1 pilot Francesco Baracca. The Countess gifted him a signed photograph of Francesco and asked Ferrari to use their son’s emblem on his cars. This emblem was of a horse charging and would later be used as the symbol that Ferrari would use on his automobile company. A year later, he was honored on the national scale as a Cavalier, or a knight, for his service and representation as a successful racer. Then, three years later he was honored with the status of Commendatore or Knight Commander. At which he then honored his country with another first place win at the first Circuito di Modena.
He won 9 out of the 39 races and this led to him cementing his legacy in the sport of racing. Which, 23% of his races led to a win. Comparing this to today’s standards that’s really good. Lewis Hamilton, the most successful racer in today’s era, currently has a win percentage of 35.9%.
After he retired as a race car driver in the 1930’s, Ferrari stayed with Alfa Romeo as a manager. His famous race team was called the Scuderia Ferrari. The translation, Ferrari Stable, was a direct play on his stallion emblem. This soon became the official racing division of Alfa Romeo. Their team had a huge victory, but, 10 years later, he decided to step away from Alfa Romeo and started developing his own racing cars. The only stipulation that Alfa had was that Enzo could not use his own name for a racing division for at least 4 years after their departure. Unfortunately, his new racing division had to halt production and racing as World War 2 was about to commence.
Despite a world war and with the introduction of F1, his team and him came back stronger, and in 1951, he showed the whole world what Ferrari was to the racing world. On July 14th, 1951, during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, he ran into his old partner and employer. His driver, Frollan Gonzales, would battle with Alfa on this historic day. In the final stretch, Frollan would position his front wheels in front of the Alfa drivers’ to get the first place win. This cemented his legacy as a car manufacturer and manager. It was also a major stepping stone for the Ferrari company as it led the company to release automobiles for the public. However, this win was a little bit of a regrettable yet nostalgic moment for Enzo as he is famously known for saying “I feel like I’ve killed my own mother.”
Since then the Ferrari brand has been both dominant and revered in F1 racing. Even though Enzo Ferrari split with Alfa Romeo, His legacy will always hold a special place in the history of Alfa. The early stages of Alfa’s great racing history was all thanks to Enzo and his teammates back in the 1920’s. Alfa Romeo has since been a major competitor in F1, and with the addition of new and young talent, we hope to see great things in the future from the Alfa Romeo F1 team.
