Enzo Ferrari’s Son Says What’s True and What’s Fake in Biopic About His Father

The new biopic Ferrari tells the story of the founder of the brand and focuses on the year 1957, when the crisis began for Enzo. What is true and what is fake about everything that shows up in the movie scenes? Piero Ferrari, the second and only living son of Enzo Ferrari, dissects the movie.

1957 was the year that everyone found out that Enzo Ferrari was living two separate lives. He was married to Laura and had Dino, who had died the previous year. But he had a long-term affair with Lina Lardi, Piero’s mother.

It was also the year of the Mille Miglia tragedy when the Ferrari driven by Alfonso de Portago blew a tire, spun out of control, flew off the road and into the spectators killing nine. Both the Spanish racing driver and his co-driver Edmund Nelson were killed in the crash.

The film shows Enzo Ferrari and Alfonso de Portago meeting right before the Mille Miglia. But Piero says it was not like that. They had known each other since 1956. One more hit-and-miss in the movie is the fact that Piero never asked de Portago for an autograph. “Back then, people did not ask for autographs,” he explains.

Asked if Enzo Ferrari would have sacrificed everything to win, his son says he was not like that. “He wanted to win, but did not want to win at any cost.” And the safety of the drivers was not negotiable for him. After the tragedy at Mille Miglia, he wanted to retire from motor racing. But on Monday, in the office, he had a totally different approach. He wanted to continue but avoid such incidents.

As the movie shows, Enzo Ferrari did indeed use to spend a lot of time in the factory. He used to get involved in the technical details, to inquire about everything, to check the cars and production. Yet he kept away from everything he was not good at, leaving it to the engineers.

Piero says that, as depicted in the movie, many famous customers used to visit Maranello in order to buy a Ferrari. The list of exclusive guests includes Prince Bernard of the Netherlands, who was married to the Queen.

He went to the factory in Italy every two or three years, left his old Ferrari there, and went home with a new one. Enzo used to invite him to lunch at the home where he lived with Lina and then very young Piero.

Italian film director Roberto Rosellini was also a constant visitor to the factory in the company of his wife, actress Ingrid Bergman.

The movie Ferrari is already in theaters, with Adam Driver playing the legendary Enzo Ferrari.