Willy Mairesse

He was the kind of fighter Enzo Ferrari adored. Another of those Tazio Nuvolari types, who wouldn’t rest until he had wrung the absolute maximum out of a car or crashed it in the process—and he often did. Before he was shoe-horned into Maranello in 1960 with the help of Jacques Swaters, Ferrari’s representative in Belgium, he had laid to rest the crumpled ruins of a Porsche 1500, a Peugeot 203, a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and three Ferrari berlinettas.

But this hyper-determined, energetic hustler with his burning intensity won. An observer of Willy’s demonic determination was Peter Revson. He once craned his neck into Mairesse’s car during a 24 Hours of Spa and saw Willy’s face contorted with unrequited commitment. Afterwards, the young American famously said it was almost like looking at the devil.