The Brianza circuit awaits the former Maranello plenipotentiary, exactly fifty years after his first Constructors' title in 1975: Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, at the behest of the brilliant Enzo Ferrari. The documentary "Luca Sees Red" is about to be released, but in 2025, Luca sees silver, British green, and the orange of his new love, McLaren, dominating the F1 World Championship thanks to Piastri and Norris. The odd couple leads with double the points of Leclerc and Hamilton...
-
Called by Enzo Ferrari as an assistant in 1973, just two years later Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, as head of the racing team, won the first of the team titles and the first of three individual titles with Niki Lauda. Since then, fifty years have passed, a multi-actual career at Maranello. Can we forget, for example, his time as President with Michael Schumacher and Jean Todt in the 1999s? And what about the winning streak at the beginning of the 2001st century, with the 2001 starter (Team Trophy)? Of course not, because the Drivers' title arrived in 2004 and absolute domination with the Constructors' and Drivers' titles from 2007 to 2008, with exciting repeats in XNUMX and XNUMX.
Thanks to the documentary “Luca Seeing Red” by Manish Pandey (who also wrote the Ayrton Senna biography) and Christopher M. Armstrong, half a century after his arrival in Maranello, that debut at Ferrari and Montezemolo's irresistible rise in the world of Formula 1 are now relevant today.
The Ferrari team isn't experiencing any memorable moments compared to its golden years. Charles Leclerc, for example, is fresh off a collision at Zandvoort with Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the new Italian hero at the wheel of Mercedes, and in the same Dutch Grand Prix, seasoned newcomer Lewis Hamilton ended up… "Who has seen him?", if we may quip.
Furthermore, Montezemolo is preparing to return to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix as a "foreigner," as a member of the board and guiding light of Mumtalakat Holding, Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, which in 2024 acquired 100% of the McLaren Group shareholding, which also owns the F1 team led by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. The two lead the 2025 World Championship standings with double the points total of Leclerc and Hamilton.
Rather than seeing red as the documentary says, Luca sees a mix of English green, papaya orange, white, red and silver of the car liveries of Woking (England, Great Britain): that's life.
Monza is Montezemolo's next stop. As always, the Brianza town is filled with traffic and chaos. Driving down Lake Lecco toward Milan and then back the same route is a constant test of patience. Even more so if the railway workers stage a strike (and, coincidentally, on a Friday!). But that's another story. Let's stick with "Luca Sees Red" to remember that meeting that took place in the first five years of the 21st century during an expedition to Maranello with the late Candido Cannavò, recently replaced at the helm of the Gazzetta by Pietro Calabrese, but always in perfect harmony with Montezemolo and the Maranello clan.
At that time, Montezemolo and Todt were all the rage in Modena and on circuits around the world, Stefano Domenicali was on the rise (so much so that he became Team Principal in 2008 and then CEO of Formula One Group after moving to Lamborghini), Lapo Elkann was doing an internship in Maranello, and Carlo Calenda was studying to become a politician and minister.
What times... those times! Well, after the presentation of the new Ferrari, we ended up at the Cavallino restaurant at the "presidential" table, where Alberto Bombassei, the Bergamo-born man of Brembo Brakes, had sat, aspiring to become president of Confindustria (the Italian industrial association), only to eventually surrender to Giorgio Squinzi, owner of Mapei (and thus also of some cycling champions). "Whoever stays with Candido is destined for a bright future," Montezemolo said at one point, looking me in the eye as he sampled the obligatory ciccioli (pork scratchings), one of his adoptive father Enzo Ferrari's favorite dishes. He was partially right. But not entirely: some ambitions remain, like a chrysalis of dreams yet to be conquered. We'll make it.
There, at the Prancing Horse, while the drivers began to unleash their devilish new machines on the nearby Fiorano track, Luca saw red in those years. And Ferrari red was everywhere. Then, as now, the Racing Team's warehouses were off-limits to everyone, or almost everyone. I remember walking between one single-seater and another, at a reasonable distance from the workers—and what "workers" those mechanical and electronics geniuses are!—busyly attending to the smallest details. And someone remembered Schumacher's first time behind the wheel of a Ferrari. It was still winter, and the Team's meeting was at Paul Ricard, the Le Castellet circuit in the south of France, where years later we would discover and adopt for Italy the Spartan Race, the world's #1 obstacle course.
That day, coming from Monte Carlo, where he had chosen his residence until the breakdown of relations with the Principality due to a diplomatic incident and subsequent transfer to Geneva; that day, it was said, Shumi had left Monte Carlo early in the morning and, after a stop between Port Fréjus and Saint-Maxime in the Var to visit his vineyard on the Côte du Rhone that overlooked a small go-kart track, he had reached Paul Richard when no Ferrari representative had yet shown up.
After unloading his racing bike from the trunk of his car, Schumacher donned his cycling gear and inspected the 5.800-meter circuit inch by inch. Having accomplished the vital mission of memorizing the route, the German from Hurth waited a little longer, not seeing any red overalls on the road. He was on time. The others weren't. They were running late, so he loaded his bike into the car and drove off. When his new adventure companions arrived, he was gone, and they were all left in suspense. They waited a whole day. The boss immediately made it clear what he was made of and who was destined to lead the dance. What a lesson the unfortunate driver, who now fights for his life every day, had taught!
Once again, memories come flooding back, interspersed with anecdotes, like the one told by Ernesto Colnago, who, with Ferrari Engineering, invented the Ferrari line of racing bikes: first a series with a red front frame, and then a later one with a yellow one. Initially, only road bikes. Then came mountain bikes with telescopic front forks. What a business it was... even for Montezemolo, who pioneered them and was an excellent ambassador for them.
Now "Luca sees... orange" and could show up at the Monza garage on a muscular McLaren S-Works Vange from Specialized or a pedal-assist (or electric, if you prefer) McLaren: we're talking about the Extreme, which is the most powerful bike in the world. It wouldn't be as fast as his Italo Treno, cobbled together with a handful of wealthy friends from various backgrounds, but it would make both Piastri and Norris jealous, and especially his former friends at Ferrari.
Let's put aside the provocations. Let's let Brianza heat up for the centenary Grand Prix and wait for the Pandey and Armstrong film. Let them start their engines.
Leave a comment (0)