Mauro Forghieri

Mauro Forghieri Biography

In 1961, following an internal upraising, the infamous Laura Affair, Enzo Ferrari fired the entire management team of his company, including top engineers Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini who promptly set up what they hoped to be a rival teo Ferrari, Automobili Turismo e Sport (ATS). They build not only a formula car but also a car for the road helped with financing by Scuderia Serenissima’s Count Giovanni Volpi. Mauro Forghieri was then a 27-year-old trainee engineer at Maranello, fresh from his studies at Bologna University. Almost overnight, he found himself appointed the new technical director. “I was scared,” Forghieri remembers. “And I told Ferrari so, but he reassured me by saying he was behind me. He taught me that you never have to feel defeated before-hand.” The relationship with the Commendatore had its ups and downs, but the string never broke: 

“We were both from Emilia, same passionate personality and warm blood. Of course, sometimes he shouted at me and vice-versa, but there was a great deal of respect between us. It is fair to say that he ‘created’ me and never destroyed me, contrarily to others…”