CONTENTS

FERRARI HAS BEEN EVER-PRESENT IN FORMULA ONE; THE only team competing today to have taken part in the first F1 World Championship in 1950. During that time, the team, its leaders and drivers have created an enduring legend and won millions of fans all over the world. But the myth has not been based on winning. Indeed, over 75 years of competition, the team has had far longer periods of not winning.

This has not, however, had a negative impact on the fortunes of the road car company, whose value as a business has soared, especially during the last 30 years, whether Ferrari was winning or not.

Nevertheless, winning is the ultimate goal of everyone who enters F1 and there is a lot of expectation heaped on Ferrari from the Italian fans, the tifosi. It takes a strong person to lead the Ferrari F1 team and to cope with the external pressures from fans and the Italian media, as well as internal pressures from shareholders. While this can manifest itself as a positive pressure, giving extra energy to the team, it can also quickly turn into something negative.

Former driver, Gerhard Berger, once said of the Ferrari F1 facility in Maranello, ‘Stand outside it and you wonder why they don’t win every race. Stand inside and you wonder how they manage to win any!’

This was in the early 1990s, the days before Jean Todt arrived, got the team organised and created a winning culture. Luca di Montezemolo brought Todt into Ferrari in 1993 after his success with Peugeot in rallying and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. During its slow decline in the 1980s, Ferrari had become a place where highly paid engineers came to boost their pension pots. It was political, and it lacked stability and a plan. Alain Prost challenged his old McLaren