Ferrari, a new film directed by Michael Mann, follows Enzo Ferrari (played by Adam Driver) through three months of the 1957 racing season; Although it focuses on the definitive Mille Miglia race, there are still many unexpected facts to discover about one of the greatest icons in Formula 1 history.
Of course, any Hollywood movie involves some manipulation of facts; in this case, it means introducing the Ford/Fiat takeover deal years in advance and presenting Ferrari as a company that suffers despite winning the F1 World Championship with Juan Manuel Fangio.
But despite all that, Michael Mann has done an impeccable job of defining some of the most important points about Enzo Ferrari, and they are four of the best.
Ferrari is based on Brock Yates’ old biography of the boy of the same name, and it’s clear that director Mann and screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin paid attention to the small main points of the film’s opening moments.
Although Ferrari, as a company, is known for its tough sports and racing cars, Enzo himself was faithful to the little Peugeot 403 that we see him driving at the beginning of the film. In addition, each and every morning after his son Dino’s death, Ferrari would go to his local barber to get a haircut, then pick flowers and make a stop at his son’s grave.
These are small details, but they are important; Enzo Ferrari experienced precisely those movements every day of his life, and it is part of what has explained his local heritage.
As the bloodhounds gather at the Ferrari factory to cover the arrival of their spring squadron, or “spring team,” made up of drivers capable of competing in the 1957 races, Enzo Ferrari begins the announcement with several bloodhounds present.
Ferrari attempted to rule his public presentation with an iron fist, and that included the prompt removal of any writer who had spoken out against him.
But Enzo Ferrari is also incredibly smart; If you could track down a smart reporter, you’d find a way to keep them in your back pocket, thus revealing data that could lead to advantages for both your business and the journalist’s career.
Gino Rancanti was one of the journalists; Ferrari shows Enzo separating Rancanti to leak a “scoop” that Ford was interested in buying the automaker. Of course, this little piece of information comes too soon for the actual Ferrari company timeline, however, it does a fantastic job of illustrating the extent to which Enzo can manipulate conversations; By revealing this data, you get what you want: a phone call from Fiat expressing the Italian automaker’s interest in buying Ferrari.
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While Enzo Ferrari was smart at leading a racing team, he was even better at making enemies. His fight with Maserati is a recurring detail of the film from the beginning, when Jean Behra arrives in the city to try to break Ferrari’s control. speed record and entrusting it to Maserati. La rivalry continues the scenes of the Mille Miglia that outline the film.
But there’s one particular rivalry that is often forgotten. During the post-WWII period of racing, Enzo Ferrari was on very poor terms with the Vatican, the Pope, and the Catholic Church. Motorsport was viewed as unnecessarily violent, and many of the high-profile deaths of Italian drivers took place behind the wheel of Ferrari’s machines. Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano accused Ferrari as being like the god Saturn, devouring his own suns — a quote that makes it into the film.
Although Ferrari made peace with the Vatican, Ferrari sheds light on the critical moment when those two Italian entities collided.
Listen to the myth and you can understand that Enzo Ferrari was something of an engineering genius; However, that was never precisely the case. Ferrari was a wonderful businessman and had an immense ability to combine and utilize the most productive minds of his generation. However, Enzo himself led the team to success.
At Ferrari, I was pleased to see that feeling come to life. As the 1950s drew to a close, it became apparent to car designers that front-engined cars were especially lacking in functionality as opposed to a mid-engined design.
Ferrari, however, flatly denied this change in attitude, stating in the film and in real life that “the ox does not push the cart”, i. e. that the vehicle’s power source should be located in front of the driver, not behind him.
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