By 
Enzo Ferrari life touched thousands, if not more, even after it ended over 30 years ago. When a biopic was announced a few years ago, a boatload of high-profile actors threw their hats into the ring to play The Old Man, including Wolverine star Hugh Jackman and The Intern (don’t laugh, good movie) star Robert De Niro. Almost everyone in his orbit (except maybe Henry “The Deuce”) was better for having known him. Here are five who played a major part in making Ferrari who he was:
Felice Nazzaro
Nazzaro was a race car driver in the early 20th century. He won the French Grand Prix and Targa Florio, among other big races, but his most important win (for the world) came at Circuito di Bologna in 1908. A 10-year-old Ferrari saw Nazzaro win the race, which inspired him to become a racing driver.
Antonio Ascari
In the early 1920s, Ferrari was a race car driver for Alfa Romeo, winning a few small races like the Coppa Acerbo. That helped convince Alfa to let him race in some more prestigious events. As Enzo’s career was ramping up, teammate Ascari was leading the 1925 French Grand Prix when he crashed during a fast left-hander. He died on his way to the hospital. Ferrari admitted later that, though he continued to race, it was only half-heartedly.
Alfredo (Dino) Ferrari
Enzo’s son Dino was born in 1932 and that's when Ferrari senior decided to officially retire from racing and focus on management and developing Alfa’s race cars. He built a team with a long-lasting name: Scuderia Ferrari. Dino died of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 1956 at the age of 24, and Enzo named the famed Dino line of Ferrari cars after him.
Ugo Gobbato
Gobbato was Alfa’s managing director when the company took back control of its racing team. It put Ferrari (the man) back into the sporting director position. There was a disagreement, and Ferrari left and founded Auto Avio Costruzioni, a race parts company. Ferrari's contract stated that he couldn’t race or design cars for four years, but he managed to sneak two racers into the 1940 Mille Miglia anyway. The same year, Ferrari’s company was forced into war production for Mussolini. The factory in Modena, Italy, was promptly bombed out of existence during WWII. After the war, he moved the business to Maranello and founded Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947.
Luigi Chinetti
Chinetti was a race car driver but started as a mechanic with Alfa Romeo in 1917. He won his first 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1932. He won the 24 Hours of Spa the next year and Le Mans again in 1934. Chinetti went to the United States after World War II started, working for Italian dealer, importer and mechanic Alfred Momo (no relation to the steering wheel). He went back to Europe after the war and won another Le Mans, before traveling to Mexico in 1951 and winning the Carrera Panamericana.
Chinetti was made a Ferrari factory agent later in the 1950s and became the first dealer in the U.S. Eventually, his territory became everything east of the Mississippi. We would probably still have Ferraris in the States without him, but it would have started a few years, maybe a decade, later. The Greenwich, Connecticut, business is still open, under the Miller Motorcars banner.
There are more names, hundreds more. But these are a few of the early connections il Commendatore made that turned him into the fierce, business-savvy, world-crushing leader he was until 1988. Here's to you Enzo, we're glad you got to see the F40 before you met your maker.
