Ferrari 312B: Where the Revolution Begins

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I'd be lying if I said that

I persuaded 'il Commendatore' Ferrari.

Because I think he came

to the same conclusion himself.

But as he was asking me questions,

I said

'I think it's time

to turn the page a little.'

I said that at the end of '68.

And he asked me what I wanted to do.

It was the car during the period

when Ferrari became big

and it was the car

that changed everything.

It was a year of transition;

full of vitality, full of personalities.

There was an energy in the air.

This sparked off changes in the sport and

a renewed sense of purpose.

In short, it was a very intense

championship

featuring many races and stars.

There was Ickx returning to Ferrari.

There was Rindt,

the god of counter-steering.

There were Pedro Rodriguez and

Jackie Stewart, the world champion

and Jack Brabham, a driver

who seemed to hail from another time.

What's the story of this one?

That's the original model of the car.

This is the 70?

- Yes.

And this would be at risk of breaking?

Yes, this is not usable.

You'd be well advised to make new ones.

It depends on the risk

you want to take.

Formula 1 is risky.

But no one says,

'I take a risk at that level'.

It's the ignorance...

- And the suspension arms...

Wheels, brakes, all the parts

of the four corners of the car.

When you design these suspensions

it happens that you get

a number of cases

of cars going off the track, etc...

So you had the wishbones

and the links bent.

It was a way of acquiring experience.

- Of getting experience.

The 312B is part of my life.

It was one of the first

things I became fascinated with as a child

when I first got interested

in the world of racing.

It was an unattainable object to me

because it was driven

by racing drivers

and for me the racing driver

was a mythological figure.

As a child you go,

'It's impossible'.

I'm dreaming of doing it,

but that's what it is, a dream.

Then, having met Mauro Forghieri,

the man who created the car

the feeling became something else

because I told him

'Mauro, if you're in, we take the car,

and we fix it.'

It's been a surprise to me

because I told him,

'I'm very happy to do it'.

In that moment I saw

the possibility for the dream

to become something else,

to turn into a project.

What Paolo had offered me

was a bit like a rebirth.

I'd come back into the world of Formula 1

from a secondary entrance.

But it was like getting back

into battle.

The car was stripped

of all its parts.

The restoration of the 31251

was without doubt a very complex thing.

It's all used up, though, I see.

I can say that the 312B1 is still

one of the few Ferraris from back then

that was exclusively the product of

a pencil and a drawing board.

So I used my recollections of the car

my recollections of the engine...

One of the most beautiful things

when restoring a historic car

that used to be so successful

is to see a machine

go back on the very path

that started it all those years ago.

Paolo has had a decent racing career.

So we set up a programme

for him to do a few test runs

because he's thinking of returning to race

in the Historic Grand Prix

of Monaco.

My hope for Monaco

is to drive a car...

to experience those feelings

in a Ferrari

let the engine roar

through those streets.

I met Stefano

at the Paris-Dakar Rally in 2001.

I had decided to do it together

with two friends in a truck.

Ten days into the race

our front axle broke

and the truck was sinking into the sand.

Stefano passed by and gave us a tow.

A year later,

we fixed up the same truck

and I went with him, and this time

I finished the Paris-Dakar Rally.

He's an old-fashioned mechanic.

He's using old-style methods,

let's say.

With Stefano we gradually established

what needed doing.

We started looking for the structures

that would help us

achieve what we wanted to build.

So how did you get on

with the pressure ratio?

How did I...?

- We have measured it!

Because for example

I can tell you that...

Here are some edges, let us...

A little more?

- Yes.

We already smoothed them,

but we can do better.

Because it gets hot.

We need to check

that the engine fits

in those according to the findings of 30...

How many years?

I do not remember.

45, 46 years ago.

We should already have tested

the engine back in early December.

We are a month behind

due to a number of things.

Enzo Ferrari had always been

a fan of the 12-cylinder.

There is a separate legend

surrounding Forghieri

parallel to that of Ferrari.

I think he was the perfect interpreter

of Ferrari's philosophy.

I would say that with engineer

Forghieri in Germany

we were able to start a car

that was a 12-cylinder

as a 10-cylinder.

We closed the holes where

the oil pressure was higher

for those who know something

of mechanics, with toothpicks.

On the cup below the engine

that was cracked and half opened

we put some Sellotape, some cardboard

to keep the oil inside.

We did about a thousand metres

at the start

but we managed to secure

a signing.

Forghieri was someone with

a thousand ideas, a thousand solutions

when something happened

he had a thousand ideas

then afterwards he would realise that maybe

another idea would have been better

but that's the benefit of hindsight...

Mauro lived through very dangerous times.

There was the danger of fire.

The machines were not as robust

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