Ferrari: Race to Immortality Page #4

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Such a manipulator of men.

He regarded it as a sport

in its own right, I think.

The Scuderia was a stable effectively

in which Ferrari would pick

the best talent that he could find.

The drivers were

the public face of the Scuderia

and he would take the cream

of the talent that was available to him.

Eugenio Castellotti

came from a little town called Lodi.

He got into racing

because it was a big macho deal.

It was what the king of the kids

would do. "Hey, look at me."

And he did have a talent.

He had a shining talent, in fact.

Musso was from Rome.

He was an Elio di Angelis of the time,

whereas Castellotti was

a street fighter from northern Italy.

Luigi Musso was a charismatic Italian

racing driver of the first order.

Let's not mince words here.

The guy was very good.

I think while Castellotti

and Musso were at Ferrari together

there was a certain amount

of shared responsibility, if you like.

You've got two drivers there

who brought Italy into Grand Prix racing

in a way that is unimaginable now

because the whole country was behind

them and both of them gave it 100%.

Fon de Portago was a nobleman

and a sportsman

of every possible variety

and he was

a very attractive personality.

He was a real playboy,

but he was a playboy, you know,

who didn't mind getting his hands dirty.

He is a man devoted to sport,

whether it be skiing,

bobsleighing, waterskiing,

swimming, fishing, hunting,

whatever it might be.

He was in some ways

the sort of most natural Ferrari driver

of the whole of the 1950s.

If you had to design a Ferrari driver,

it would have been Fon de Portago.

And he had the girlfriends

to go with it too.

The Scuderia was led

by Juan Manuel Fangio

and Castellotti apparently

would hang on Fangio's every word.

Fangio to me is the best driver

in the world bar none.

He was a great man. He was a man

that whatever he could do once,

he could continue to do.

And it was a beautiful balance

and a rhythm of a man and a vehicle.

Enzo Ferrari was once asked

when a car crosses the line

to take the checkered flag,

how much of it is car,

how much of it is driver?

And he said, "60% car, 40% driver."

The sad thing was that Ferrari

didn't spend enough time

learning how to deal with the drivers

individual to individual.

Now every driver

has a different style of his own.

Hawthorn has an expression of a man

who is fighting on his face.

Peter Collins

is always making faces at the crowd,

not deliberately,

but I have yet to see a picture of Peter

in which he isn't making

some kind of a face.

Peter Collins

had been driving for BRM

and then he was offered

a drive with Ferrari,

which would have been fantastic.

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