Farewell to Mauro Forghieri, the last symbol of Formula 1 of the past

Mauro Forghieri it was unique and unrepeatable. The last symbol of the Formula 1 of yesteryear, the one in which a single man could be in command of the team on the track after designing the engine and chassis. An engineer who wrote the history of Ferrari in Formula 1 with 54 grands prix, 7 constructors ‘world championships, 4 drivers’ world championships (with Surtees, Lauda 2 and Scheckter), but who has put his signature in all sectors of motorsport, from he raced in the mountains at the endurance world championship until he put the finishing touches to the most expensive Ferrari of all time, the legendary GTO. Mauro Forghieri had started as an intern, following in the footsteps of his father Reclus who worked in Maranello as an engine mechanic, but at the age of 26 the engineer entrusted him with the responsibility of the racing department after the diaspora of engineer Chiti and six other technicians. and engineers. He suddenly found himself having to deal with Formula 1 and Sport Prototypes, planning and organizing, designing and directing. Another genius of motor racing joined the company with him, Giampaolo Dallara, but shortly after he left Ferrari to devote himself to the Miura and then create his own company which today is an Italian jewel and sells racing cars all over the world.

We are at the end of 1961 when Forghieri finds himself alone with all the responsibility on his shoulders. He had entered Maranello in 1959 and then remained there until 1984. His clashes with Enzo Ferrari were epic. They could hear them screaming all the way across the factory. “I became redder than him and screamed more than him”, Forghieri told us, recalling those extraordinary years. “Ferrari could discuss in a very, very animated way with all its collaborators, whether they were engineers or technicians. Never with Mauro whose superiority he accepted. Only if he pushed himself too high, then he blocked him ”, recalled Franco Gozzi, the Drake’s right arm recalling those heated verbal challenges. Those were magical years, still a few sulfdi, but many ideas.

The world championship with Surtees, the man who came from motorcycles, those with Lauda, ​​the final one with Jody Scheckter who became a great friend to talk to about balsamic vinegar, another of Forghieri’s great passions. Lauda’s years were also those of Luca di Montezemolo, who was also thrown on the front line little more than a boy. They met on the Fiorano track where a never-ending friendship was born. “With Mauro, not only has one of the greatest Italian technicians disappeared, appreciated all over the world, but also a friend and collaborator with whom I shared wonderful years and unforgettable sporting successes”, the memory of the former president who a few months ago was was with him in Fiorano to celebrate 50 years of the Scuderia track.

Forghieri, known as Furia, just because every now and then he could not restrain himself and burst even if he had Enzo Ferrari in front of him, he left unique inventions in the history of Formula 1. He was not satisfied with designing engines (he invented every one: 8-cylinder 90 °, 12 cylinders from 60 to 180 degrees, 6 cylinders and 12 supercharged cylinders). He was the first to bring the ailerons to Formula 1 in 1964. He was also the first to design a gearbox behind the wheel and let Gilles Villeneuve try it, but he rejected it. That project remained in a drawer until the end of the Eighties when John Barnard dusted it off and thanks to the technology available at the time, he first mounted it on the single-seaters of Mansell and Berger, paving the way that all Formula 1 and then production followed. His masterpiece was the 312 series with transverse gearbox driven by a flat 12-cylinder engine that with Lauda won two world championships that could have been many more without the burning of the Nurburgring and then the separation of Niki from the Engineer. The Lauda legacy was then picked up by Scheckter with the 1979 title and Villeneuve could have picked it up in the Eighties when the Ferrari designed by Forghieri was an unbeatable car. Forghieri, however, in that 1982 Imola Grand Prix, that of the definitive quarrel between Gilles and Pironi, between Gilles and Ferrari, was not there. He had a family commitment. The communion of his son. With Forghieri at the wall that sign would never have come out and the war would not have broken out between Gilles and Pironi and then exploded 15 days later in Zolder. “Gilles would never have become world champion. He was pure ”, Forghieri told us a few years ago. But with him she would have done it.