March 14, 2025 • 20 mins
On Ferrari Friday's, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breathe the Ferrari brand. Topics range from road cars to racing; drivers to owners, as well as auctions, private sales and trends in the collector market.
In this episode William delves into the overlooked life and contributions of Laura Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari's wife, in celebration of Women's History Month. He covers various aspects of her life including her role in Enzo life, their complex relationship, her unseen influence on Ferrari's financial stability, and the challenges she faced in a male-dominated era. William highlights Laura's crucial involvement in maintaining and managing Ferrari's finances, which arguably saved the company from financial ruin. He also touches upon personal anecdotes, the impact of their son Dino's illness, and the controversial dynamics involving Enzo's mistress, Lina Lardi. He also emphasizes the need for more recognition of Laura Ferrari's significant, yet underappreciated contributions to the legendary car brand.
===== (Oo---x---oO) =====
00:00 Celebrating Women's History Month 02:11 The Enigmatic Laura Ferrari 03:35 Early Relationship with Enzo 05:18 Marriage and Early Challenges 07:29 Laura's Increasing Involvement in Ferrari 11:23 The Palace Revolt and Aftermath 15:07 Laura's Legacy in Ferrari 17:45 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of our Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
As part of Ferrari Fridays, WilliamRoss from the Exotic Car Marketplace
will be discussing all things Ferrariand interviewing people that live
and breathe the Ferrari brand.
Topics range from road cars toracing, drivers to owners, as well
as auctions, private sales, andtrends in the collector market.
(00:28):
Welcome back to the FerrariMarketplace Podcast.
I'm your host, William Ross.
Thanks for listening.
I really appreciate the support.
I'd like to give a shout out to afew of our sponsors and supporters
before we jump into things here.
I want to give a shout out tothe Exotic Car Marketplace.
For everything exotic cars from Ferrari,Porsche, Lamborghini, and Koenigsegg,
check out ExoticCarMarketplace.
com for all your exotic car needsbefore, after, and during ownership.
(00:52):
The Motoring Podcast Network.
Check out the family of automotivepodcasts at motoringpodcast.
net.
If you're into anything with wheels anda motor, this is the site to check out.
Check out slotmods.
com.
Let your imagination run wild withwhat they could build for you in
these outrageous and beautiful andminutely detailed slot car tracks.
And finally, to Grand TouringMotorsports covering all aspects of
(01:12):
auto racing, be sure to check outthe monthly e zine at gtmotorsports.
org.
All the links are postedup in the description.
And I'd also like to kind ofgive a heads up to everyone.
Our second annual Rockin RevsAutomotive Festival happening here
in Fairview Park, Ohio on July 27th.
This event is put together tohelp raise money for two near
and dear things to my heart.
One is ACBC, known as AluminumCans for Burned Children.
(01:36):
Who raised money to support pediatricburn survivors and send them some
camps a couple of times a year andanything that may require at their
home, but also the Island Safe HarborAnimal Sanctuary in Marblehead, Ohio.
To Nancy and her team up there thattake in all the older dogs and dogs with
medical needs and whatnot that are usuallyvery difficult to kind of get adopted out.
They tackle them head on and givethese beautiful, beautiful animals
(01:57):
a nice warm place to stay andlive to hopefully get adopted out.
But if not, she keeps them.
So anyways, onto our topic.
Month of March is Women's History Month.
So what we're going todelve into Laura Ferrari.
Yes.
Enzo's wife, the enigmatic lady behindthe man that created probably the
most famous car brand known to man.
(02:19):
A lot of this stuff is going tocome from just what you can find
in Witchcreed, which is not a lot.
And if you kind of referenced the MichaelMann movie from a few years ago, you
know, a lot of the stuff they try to dofor Penelope Cruz to portray her, they
had a very, very difficult time tryingto get the truth, get the story, get the
history, kind of get anything on her.
Because, well, I wouldn't say veryclose to the vest, but there really
(02:41):
wasn't much written about her.
Back then was such a different time.
You're talking early 1900s of allthe way up to the 1970s when she
passed, especially in Italy andItalian heritage, who my producer
Eric should be familiar with, isback then it was very, very different
times in regards to having a wife, amistress, girlfriend, what have you.
(03:02):
It was common and it was not, I wantto say frowned upon maybe, but kind
of just, all right, it's accepted.
Very different times in verydifferent ways things were done.
But again, also back then women were neverviewed as equals of men, which is a sad,
sad situation, but it was just how thingswere done and how people were brought up.
And this day and age, westill have a long way to go.
(03:24):
But back then it was horrific.
Some of the stuff hereis just baffling to me.
But anyways, we're goingto talk about Laura.
I'm going to give what I cangive, what I'd be able to dig up.
This is just my viewpoint.
Now Enzo and Laura met 1920, 1921,somewhere around in that era.
They Supposedly met at a train station,but other hearsay, other stuff,
(03:45):
you know, she was actually a go godancer at a, um, I don't want to say
discotheque, but you know, nightclub,whatever you want to call it back then.
An Enzo dashing racing driver, racingalpha males, this kind of stuff.
So, you know, he had thatcharisma of the genesis.
Allure, I guess you could say,you know, women get drawn to.
So they had met and again, eitherat the train station or whatnot,
(04:08):
but they actually, I want tosay had a whirlwind romance.
But from my understanding is, youknow, they jumped into bed pretty
quickly and started basicallyhaving, you know, obviously romantic
relationship from the get go.
Again, back then,especially in Italy and how.
strong the catholicfaith is in that country.
Having sex beforemarriage was a big no no.
(04:29):
They always wanted, oh you marry avirgin, that kind of stupid shit.
So, they kind of kept it hush hush.
But what's interesting for imagewise, Enzo Referred to her very
early in the relationship as LauraFerrari as his wife, basically,
because the circles he was going in.
And again, this is just that weird dynamicand the way things were done back then
(04:49):
him being a single guy and whatnot withthe girlfriend was not viewed very good.
They kind of, I don't want to say shuntheir nose at her, but that they, I don't
know if it was immaturity or whatnot,or just weird because, you know, this
is someone in their early twenties,this day and age, you look at someone
that's married in the early twenties,like what the hell's wrong with you?
Did you marry high school sweetheart?
I mean, you don't get married thatyoung, that early, so frequently anymore.
It's just not as common.
(05:10):
But back then, got married in 1819, youknow, you bam, right out of the thing.
And I think that had to do withthe fact is, you know, you married
the first girl and you had at it.
But anyways, He came out of thegate pretty early within the first
year or something like that andcorrespondence or something like that
was stating the fact and referringto her as Laura Ferrari as his wife.
So he would be received more favorably.
(05:32):
Being a racing car driver, obviouslyyou're running around people with
money, you know, royalty with clout.
Obviously perception is key.
So he wanted to be perceived,you know, as a man that I have a
wife, I'm a stable guy, you know,I got a good head on my shoulders.
So he started referring to her that way.
In the early days, everything washunky dory, everything's good.
Laura was a very outgoing person,you know, very charismatic from my
(05:55):
understanding, from what I could see.
She attended, went to all the races,went to them, everything like that.
Even after they got married,she attended a lot of the races.
Within the first year or two,but then after they got married,
it kind of started waning.
She started spending a lot more time, youwant to say vacationing, but she was more
on, you know, a wellness situation, goingup into the hills of the Italian River
areas and getting the better air, going tostay at her sister's and stuff like that.
(06:19):
So you have a period of time in thereafter their marriage in the first
few years where things started waningin regards to that relationship,
partnership, and it got to the point.
Where supposedly Enzo had sent hera, basically a letter that is either
you come home or no, we're done.
So he just kind of got fed up with it.
(06:39):
I think the image part of itwas, may have been the situation
may have been as a problem.
He's married, but okay, where's your wife?
Well, she's hundreds of milesaway in the Riviera to Snatton.
In this time that this is happening,his company's going to shit.
And him trying to build what he wastrying to build wasn't coming together.
Just wasn't working out his racingcareer, everything like that.
He was a good racer, that's forsure, but gave her an ultimatum.
(07:01):
So all of a sudden she comes back andshe comes back to a situation where
everything's kind of the finances andstuff are all kind of in disarray.
And as we all know Enzo's story,then he goes on to start looking over
the Alfa Romeo race team to snap.
But again, Laura's nowhere to be found.
She hasn't come to races.
She come to.
If you're here and there, she was inthe one photo of Scuderia Ferrari's
(07:23):
first victory and that stuff.
So she was in that photo.
So she still traveled a bit,but just not quite as frequently
as she used to in the past.
Now, this is when after 12 yearsof marriage and all this turbulent
times or anything like that,they have a son, Dino Alfredo.
So, we all know Dino died at a veryyoung age, and basically it was from
muscular dystrophy, Duchenne musculardystrophy, I guess you get more specific.
(07:45):
And the one thing about it is Enzofound out, or back in the time, and
I don't know, I'm not a doctor, so Idon't know how true this is or what
not, but this is passed on to a childfrom a chromosome from the mother.
So Enzo basically blamedher for Dino's death.
So many years later from this horribledisease, obviously things got that much
(08:06):
more strenuous after the passing of Dino.
But here's the one other side ofthis, not long after them getting,
honestly not getting married, butI'm going to say in the early 30s.
Before Dino was born, LenaLardy came into Enzo's life.
So this is an interesting dynamicbecause again, how I stated
earlier was back then in that day.
(08:28):
It wasn't, I don't want to say final,maybe it was final, but it was like,
it was accepted that you had a wife,you had a mistress, plain and simple.
So I mean, I guess thisis how it was back then.
Kept hot shots, she really didn'tknow about Lena until many years
later, but this is when Enzo startedto have, I want to say a double life.
Spending time with her and splittingall his time, so I mean, I don't
honestly, I don't know how he did it.
It's not like this day and age whereyou got cell phones, all this kind of
(08:50):
stuff, and All these guys, you're talkingabout a time when, you know, you had to
drive and all this stuff and it's, it'sunbelievable how he was, you know, did it.
But anyways, we're jumping,not doing the early stuff.
We're going to get into the meat of stuffin regards to where Laura's story is
more prominent in the history of Ferrari.
Ferrari's up and going by thetime Dino's 24 when he passes.
(09:11):
Ferrari itself is embedded in theracing world and, you know, they're
starting to make their, uh, productionroad cars to support the racing.
You know, getting into this factis, well, After Dino passes,
there's always this head biting.
Laura, after a bit of mourning,everything like that, all of a
sudden she becomes very, veryinvolved with the running of Ferrari.
(09:33):
She gets into more of the financial sideof things, looking at the books, looking
at expenses, everything like that.
And all of a sudden, She starts goingto all the races now mind you Enzo as
he got in the things He stopped going toraces unless it was in Italy within a few
hours or what have you he would go Butanything else of that he would get phone
calls from the team managers They wouldpass along the results the information
(09:56):
to him to telephone telegraph what haveyou, but Laura Would go and this is where
this kind of becomes an odd situation.
Is she reporting back to him?
Whatnot people don't know, butshe's all of a sudden going thing.
You see her in photos, everything likethat, but she's more prominent within the
running of Ferrari itself and looking overthe finances to be sure dollars aren't
getting spent, whether it's supposedto that kind of thing, which needs to
(10:17):
be done, you can't just run haphazardlyand, you know, stay in business.
So.
That side of it, I think her taking thatover, I think is brilliant because I think
it actually, to an extent, saved Ferrarifrom probably going under and going
bankrupt or broke in the early years wherethey would never even gotten to the point
where Fiat would have came in and savedthem or all that stuff playing that little
game with Ford and everything like that.
(10:38):
So I think that's kind of a very,very, I don't want to say underrated.
I don't think people talk about itenough and saying, you know, this.
Woman came in and started going over thebooks started mining expenses started
going to the races are like that andwatching what people were Doing in regards
to what money they were spending whatexpenditure like every dollar counts
So I think that was a very I would saybrilliant move But I think it was a very
(11:01):
pragmatic move in regards to the historyof Ferrari and keeping the doors open and
getting where they Are today at this pointin time by some things are happening.
Enzo's got his girlfriendLena Piero was born.
We'll get into that a little bitmore with how Laura handled that.
And again, it's just a weird dynamicand the times back then were completely
different in how the thoughts were andyou don't know how someone was thinking.
(11:21):
You don't, can't get in someone's brain.
But in 1961, they had the PalaceRevolt because there's All these
engineers and managers weregetting upset and pissed off.
They felt, and again, this isprobably the male ego involved saying
a woman shouldn't be on the floor.
A woman shouldn't be telling us whatto do, dah, dah, dah, this and that.
Cause she was getting into everything,coming on the floor, getting a thing and
probably minding the P's and Q's of thefinances, trying to find out what's going
(11:45):
on and hey, my husband owns a company.
I own the company too as well.
Then you listen to what I do.
And headstrong Italian men probablydidn't take kindly to that.
So they basically.
So a lawyer net, they go toEnzo and say, she's got to go.
It's either her or us.
Well, guess what?
They went, which there were some very,very prominent people that left the
company on that day, but then alsoelevated Ferrari because of for Gary
(12:10):
came on board, you know, was there andvery young was early twenties and he
gets elevated to the team manager, allthis stuff and everything happened.
It seemed, you know, Hey, itall worked out, obviously.
Enzo Bacchus and he kicked them out.
So even though all those problems werethere that head butting everything like
that He still stood by and I'm supportingmy wife, which was awesome to see, you
(12:30):
know, so everyone leaves So there'sa big swift times change whatnot They
had the next couple years in the racingdepartment that did not go very well
because I want to say starting fromscratch But basically is because you
know, you have that core that's working.
I think they all leave.
Okay, you guys start over So for thenext two seasons They didn't do too good.
Obviously, they came roaring back.
We know what happened after that.
They just dominated F1.
(12:52):
They dominated enduranceracing, everything, everything
and everything under the sun.
Taking lemons, makinglemonade, I guess you say.
So that was kind of an interestinglittle dynamic, even though, and
I don't want to say animosity, butI want to say, you know, just the
friction between Enzo and Laura.
Going on, he still stood behind her.
And up until 1970 in Italy, youcouldn't get divorced anyways because
(13:13):
the Catholic Church wouldn't allow itbecause you had to go to the church
to get permission to get divorced.
So unless there was some really strenuouscircumstances that would justify, you
weren't getting divorced back then.
It wasn't happening.
I guess maybe that goes back tothings, hey, you could have a mistress,
whatnot, but hey, you kept the familytogether, everything like that.
So in this time, then all of asudden, Laura finds out about Lena.
Lardy, Enzo's mistress.
(13:34):
And Piero!
Watching the Ferrari movie, youprobably saw all this stuff about
her hunting her down or anything.
Now, a lot of that's relativelytrue in regards to her laying
down the law and fighting it.
But one of the big things that came outof that is says, Piero will not take your
last name, Enzo, until after I'm dead.
He was always Pyrrha, now in the moviethey say it somehow is true because
Lena Lardy, she kept everythingclose to the chest and she wouldn't
(13:56):
divulge much and kudos to her.
Now hey, it's no one's business, it'sher business, between her and Enzo.
But after obviously the Lord died in 1978,Piero took the last name Ferrari, and
there you go, as Enzo's only survivingson, who's still alive today, and he's
got his own kids, and one of them isnamed Enzo, I think, going to school
in California, something like that,so, the legacy lives on, and I think
(14:16):
he owns 5%, 10 percent of the car, Idon't know, he's got a nice chunk of it,
where, you know, he's, Obviously havingthat last name he's, he's enjoying life.
All this is going on and Lenadoes not live all that far.
She lives in Modena and the fact isshe's not living all that far from
where Laura and them are living.
It's not like she's on the otherside of the country or other side
of the world or anything like that.
(14:37):
Obviously back then you're notfollowing someone on Instagram
or Facebook stalking them.
Enzo put them up in a nice littlehouse, you know, Laura and them,
they were living in this apartment.
Again, it's something you tryand wrap your head around now.
You're just like, how is that possible?
How can you, you know, it'slike, there's just no way.
I mean, you hear storiesand stuff all the time.
And you know, he had a secondfamily, all this stuff.
But back then it was,oh, that's his mistress.
Oh, this and that, you know, it wasjust basically, oh, that's what that is.
(14:59):
So anyways, you know, she justput it to him after the fact.
And she got involved with Ferrari,which I believe her involvement.
I want to say save the company.
Now, I know in the movie they kind ofsaid, Oh, she had half the shares and then
she needed to give some back to him andshe wanted a half a million dollars, dah,
dah, dah, about the timeframes were offand whatnot, and it's basically not true.
Obviously that thing for the story, forthe movie, you got to build something up.
(15:22):
That wasn't true, but she did have theownership in the company, but having
that half the shares and all this stuffand holding it over Enzo's head, as
far as anyone knows, and as far as Iknow, I could find that wasn't true.
She was a very prominentfigure with Ferrari.
And I honestly think her role in thestory of Ferrari itself, the company
needs to be, I want to say moreprominent in regards to what her roles
(15:44):
and what she did and how much sheactually contributed to the company.
Cause again, I think when shestepped in and started doing
the finances and everything likethat, that wasn't Enzo's forte.
His thing was corralling goodpeople, getting them to do
what he wanted them to do.
And he was a leader, got the right people,put them in the right positions and
just cracked the whip, going like that.
Accounting wasn't his thing ofdoing finance, but you know, Laura,
(16:04):
she stepped in and I honestlybelieve, I think she saved the
company, kept it from going under.
Probably had a huge part in that.
Yes, he built great road cars for that,but you got to remember they weren't
building all that many cars back then.
So it wasn't like they're cranking outtens of thousands of cars a year and
say, Oh, we got all this money coming in.
It was a tight thing.
And the amount of race cars and racingthey're doing, I mean, you got to go
(16:25):
to shipping, all this kind of stuff.
I mean, there's a lot ofcosts involved in that.
So it's like.
You got to get moneyfor someone or whatnot.
So you got to mind your P's and Q's.
So I believe she needs to be recognizedmore in regards to the story of Ferrari
itself, the company and stepping in.
And again, a lot of this stuff youread about is, I would say hearsay, but
(16:46):
it's from stories from other people.
Everyone's, Oh, it's this or that.
Some of the stuff you can figureout like Laura and Enzo's mother.
He didn't get along, but.
How common is that, that the daughterin law doesn't, doesn't get along with
their mother in law and especiallyback then because the hierarchy was and
everything like that, your mother wasGod, so to speak, you know, it's just
(17:06):
commonplace, but you hear those storiesand I just think she's always been put
in a negative light wrongly, what sheput up with, what she had to deal with.
Enzo was a difficult,difficult man, ego, whatnot.
I mean, just, For what she had to do andwhat she had to tolerate, a mistress.
A mistress having Enzo's lovechild, and that kind of situation.
(17:28):
Being accepted or what not backthen, still doesn't matter.
I mean, it's a slap in theface in regards to your wife.
It's like, you don't respect me.
But again, it's just sucha different time back then.
You know, and then you're talking, youknow, a time it was in Italy, that was
old world, just different, different time.
So, I hope you appreciated my ramblings.
About Laura Ferrari and like you saidcelebrating women's history month here
(17:52):
I wanted to get out there look I thinkfor her role what she did and contributed
to Ferrari is Undervalued and I thinkthere needs to be more Celebration of
regards to how much she contributedto the company I honestly believe
she saved it from financial ruin whenshe finally started taking over the
finances, getting involved more, goingto the races, everything like that.
I think she actuallyprobably saved the company.
(18:13):
So I think she needs to be celebrateda lot more in regards to the story
of Ferrari to where it is today.
Because everythingalways lines up in place.
You look at something that'sgetting close to 100 years old.
It's an entity lasting that long.
You have your ups, your downs,your peaks, your valleys.
All these things happen.
Hindsight, you can look and say, oh well.
That happened, the PalaceRevolt, but then this happened,
(18:34):
which was successful for them.
So it's like, oh, look it,the man upstairs, oh, he's got
a plan, that kind of stuff.
Everything lined up, but you know, certainthings, I think, you know, also happen
that you just, they don't get spoken aboutor I don't think they get brought to more
people's attention in regards to that.
I just feel that she needs to becelebrated more in regards to this
history and the story of Ferrari.
That's all I want to say about that.
Again, I appreciate you guys listening.
(18:56):
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(19:19):
So everyone's got something to listen to.
I appreciate you listening.
Celebrate Women's History Month.
If your mom's still around, giveher a big kiss because without
her, you wouldn't be here.
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For more episodes like this, tune in eachweek for more exciting and educational
(19:42):
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As part of Ferrari Fridays, WilliamRoss from the Exotic Car Marketplace
will be discussing all things Ferrariand interviewing people that live
and breathe the Ferrari brand.
Topics range from road cars toracing, drivers to owners, as well
as auctions, private sales, andtrends in the collector market.
(00:28):
Welcome back to the FerrariMarketplace Podcast.
I'm your host, William Ross.
Thanks for listening.
I really appreciate the support.
I'd like to give a shout out to afew of our sponsors and supporters
before we jump into things here.
I want to give a shout out tothe Exotic Car Marketplace.
For everything exotic cars from Ferrari,Porsche, Lamborghini, and Koenigsegg,
check out ExoticCarMarketplace.
com for all your exotic car needsbefore, after, and during ownership.
(00:52):
The Motoring Podcast Network.
Check out the family of automotivepodcasts at motoringpodcast.
net.
If you're into anything with wheels anda motor, this is the site to check out.
Check out slotmods.
com.
Let your imagination run wild withwhat they could build for you in
these outrageous and beautiful andminutely detailed slot car tracks.
And finally, to Grand TouringMotorsports covering all aspects of
(01:12):
auto racing, be sure to check outthe monthly e zine at gtmotorsports.
org.
All the links are postedup in the description.
And I'd also like to kind ofgive a heads up to everyone.
Our second annual Rockin RevsAutomotive Festival happening here
in Fairview Park, Ohio on July 27th.
This event is put together tohelp raise money for two near
and dear things to my heart.
One is ACBC, known as AluminumCans for Burned Children.
(01:36):
Who raised money to support pediatricburn survivors and send them some
camps a couple of times a year andanything that may require at their
home, but also the Island Safe HarborAnimal Sanctuary in Marblehead, Ohio.
To Nancy and her team up there thattake in all the older dogs and dogs with
medical needs and whatnot that are usuallyvery difficult to kind of get adopted out.
They tackle them head on and givethese beautiful, beautiful animals
(01:57):
a nice warm place to stay andlive to hopefully get adopted out.
But if not, she keeps them.
So anyways, onto our topic.
Month of March is Women's History Month.
So what we're going todelve into Laura Ferrari.
Yes.
Enzo's wife, the enigmatic lady behindthe man that created probably the
most famous car brand known to man.
(02:19):
A lot of this stuff is going tocome from just what you can find
in Witchcreed, which is not a lot.
And if you kind of referenced the MichaelMann movie from a few years ago, you
know, a lot of the stuff they try to dofor Penelope Cruz to portray her, they
had a very, very difficult time tryingto get the truth, get the story, get the
history, kind of get anything on her.
Because, well, I wouldn't say veryclose to the vest, but there really
(02:41):
wasn't much written about her.
Back then was such a different time.
You're talking early 1900s of allthe way up to the 1970s when she
passed, especially in Italy andItalian heritage, who my producer
Eric should be familiar with, isback then it was very, very different
times in regards to having a wife, amistress, girlfriend, what have you.
(03:02):
It was common and it was not, I wantto say frowned upon maybe, but kind
of just, all right, it's accepted.
Very different times in verydifferent ways things were done.
But again, also back then women were neverviewed as equals of men, which is a sad,
sad situation, but it was just how thingswere done and how people were brought up.
And this day and age, westill have a long way to go.
(03:24):
But back then it was horrific.
Some of the stuff hereis just baffling to me.
But anyways, we're goingto talk about Laura.
I'm going to give what I cangive, what I'd be able to dig up.
This is just my viewpoint.
Now Enzo and Laura met 1920, 1921,somewhere around in that era.
They Supposedly met at a train station,but other hearsay, other stuff,
(03:45):
you know, she was actually a go godancer at a, um, I don't want to say
discotheque, but you know, nightclub,whatever you want to call it back then.
An Enzo dashing racing driver, racingalpha males, this kind of stuff.
So, you know, he had thatcharisma of the genesis.
Allure, I guess you could say,you know, women get drawn to.
So they had met and again, eitherat the train station or whatnot,
(04:08):
but they actually, I want tosay had a whirlwind romance.
But from my understanding is, youknow, they jumped into bed pretty
quickly and started basicallyhaving, you know, obviously romantic
relationship from the get go.
Again, back then,especially in Italy and how.
strong the catholicfaith is in that country.
Having sex beforemarriage was a big no no.
(04:29):
They always wanted, oh you marry avirgin, that kind of stupid shit.
So, they kind of kept it hush hush.
But what's interesting for imagewise, Enzo Referred to her very
early in the relationship as LauraFerrari as his wife, basically,
because the circles he was going in.
And again, this is just that weird dynamicand the way things were done back then
(04:49):
him being a single guy and whatnot withthe girlfriend was not viewed very good.
They kind of, I don't want to say shuntheir nose at her, but that they, I don't
know if it was immaturity or whatnot,or just weird because, you know, this
is someone in their early twenties,this day and age, you look at someone
that's married in the early twenties,like what the hell's wrong with you?
Did you marry high school sweetheart?
I mean, you don't get married thatyoung, that early, so frequently anymore.
It's just not as common.
(05:10):
But back then, got married in 1819, youknow, you bam, right out of the thing.
And I think that had to do withthe fact is, you know, you married
the first girl and you had at it.
But anyways, He came out of thegate pretty early within the first
year or something like that andcorrespondence or something like that
was stating the fact and referringto her as Laura Ferrari as his wife.
So he would be received more favorably.
(05:32):
Being a racing car driver, obviouslyyou're running around people with
money, you know, royalty with clout.
Obviously perception is key.
So he wanted to be perceived,you know, as a man that I have a
wife, I'm a stable guy, you know,I got a good head on my shoulders.
So he started referring to her that way.
In the early days, everything washunky dory, everything's good.
Laura was a very outgoing person,you know, very charismatic from my
(05:55):
understanding, from what I could see.
She attended, went to all the races,went to them, everything like that.
Even after they got married,she attended a lot of the races.
Within the first year or two,but then after they got married,
it kind of started waning.
She started spending a lot more time, youwant to say vacationing, but she was more
on, you know, a wellness situation, goingup into the hills of the Italian River
areas and getting the better air, going tostay at her sister's and stuff like that.
(06:19):
So you have a period of time in thereafter their marriage in the first
few years where things started waningin regards to that relationship,
partnership, and it got to the point.
Where supposedly Enzo had sent hera, basically a letter that is either
you come home or no, we're done.
So he just kind of got fed up with it.
(06:39):
I think the image part of itwas, may have been the situation
may have been as a problem.
He's married, but okay, where's your wife?
Well, she's hundreds of milesaway in the Riviera to Snatton.
In this time that this is happening,his company's going to shit.
And him trying to build what he wastrying to build wasn't coming together.
Just wasn't working out his racingcareer, everything like that.
He was a good racer, that's forsure, but gave her an ultimatum.
(07:01):
So all of a sudden she comes back andshe comes back to a situation where
everything's kind of the finances andstuff are all kind of in disarray.
And as we all know Enzo's story,then he goes on to start looking over
the Alfa Romeo race team to snap.
But again, Laura's nowhere to be found.
She hasn't come to races.
She come to.
If you're here and there, she was inthe one photo of Scuderia Ferrari's
(07:23):
first victory and that stuff.
So she was in that photo.
So she still traveled a bit,but just not quite as frequently
as she used to in the past.
Now, this is when after 12 yearsof marriage and all this turbulent
times or anything like that,they have a son, Dino Alfredo.
So, we all know Dino died at a veryyoung age, and basically it was from
muscular dystrophy, Duchenne musculardystrophy, I guess you get more specific.
(07:45):
And the one thing about it is Enzofound out, or back in the time, and
I don't know, I'm not a doctor, so Idon't know how true this is or what
not, but this is passed on to a childfrom a chromosome from the mother.
So Enzo basically blamedher for Dino's death.
So many years later from this horribledisease, obviously things got that much
(08:06):
more strenuous after the passing of Dino.
But here's the one other side ofthis, not long after them getting,
honestly not getting married, butI'm going to say in the early 30s.
Before Dino was born, LenaLardy came into Enzo's life.
So this is an interesting dynamicbecause again, how I stated
earlier was back then in that day.
(08:28):
It wasn't, I don't want to say final,maybe it was final, but it was like,
it was accepted that you had a wife,you had a mistress, plain and simple.
So I mean, I guess thisis how it was back then.
Kept hot shots, she really didn'tknow about Lena until many years
later, but this is when Enzo startedto have, I want to say a double life.
Spending time with her and splittingall his time, so I mean, I don't
honestly, I don't know how he did it.
It's not like this day and age whereyou got cell phones, all this kind of
(08:50):
stuff, and All these guys, you're talkingabout a time when, you know, you had to
drive and all this stuff and it's, it'sunbelievable how he was, you know, did it.
But anyways, we're jumping,not doing the early stuff.
We're going to get into the meat of stuffin regards to where Laura's story is
more prominent in the history of Ferrari.
Ferrari's up and going by thetime Dino's 24 when he passes.
(09:11):
Ferrari itself is embedded in theracing world and, you know, they're
starting to make their, uh, productionroad cars to support the racing.
You know, getting into this factis, well, After Dino passes,
there's always this head biting.
Laura, after a bit of mourning,everything like that, all of a
sudden she becomes very, veryinvolved with the running of Ferrari.
(09:33):
She gets into more of the financial sideof things, looking at the books, looking
at expenses, everything like that.
And all of a sudden, She starts goingto all the races now mind you Enzo as
he got in the things He stopped going toraces unless it was in Italy within a few
hours or what have you he would go Butanything else of that he would get phone
calls from the team managers They wouldpass along the results the information
(09:56):
to him to telephone telegraph what haveyou, but Laura Would go and this is where
this kind of becomes an odd situation.
Is she reporting back to him?
Whatnot people don't know, butshe's all of a sudden going thing.
You see her in photos, everything likethat, but she's more prominent within the
running of Ferrari itself and looking overthe finances to be sure dollars aren't
getting spent, whether it's supposedto that kind of thing, which needs to
(10:17):
be done, you can't just run haphazardlyand, you know, stay in business.
So.
That side of it, I think her taking thatover, I think is brilliant because I think
it actually, to an extent, saved Ferrarifrom probably going under and going
bankrupt or broke in the early years wherethey would never even gotten to the point
where Fiat would have came in and savedthem or all that stuff playing that little
game with Ford and everything like that.
(10:38):
So I think that's kind of a very,very, I don't want to say underrated.
I don't think people talk about itenough and saying, you know, this.
Woman came in and started going over thebooks started mining expenses started
going to the races are like that andwatching what people were Doing in regards
to what money they were spending whatexpenditure like every dollar counts
So I think that was a very I would saybrilliant move But I think it was a very
(11:01):
pragmatic move in regards to the historyof Ferrari and keeping the doors open and
getting where they Are today at this pointin time by some things are happening.
Enzo's got his girlfriendLena Piero was born.
We'll get into that a little bitmore with how Laura handled that.
And again, it's just a weird dynamicand the times back then were completely
different in how the thoughts were andyou don't know how someone was thinking.
(11:21):
You don't, can't get in someone's brain.
But in 1961, they had the PalaceRevolt because there's All these
engineers and managers weregetting upset and pissed off.
They felt, and again, this isprobably the male ego involved saying
a woman shouldn't be on the floor.
A woman shouldn't be telling us whatto do, dah, dah, dah, this and that.
Cause she was getting into everything,coming on the floor, getting a thing and
probably minding the P's and Q's of thefinances, trying to find out what's going
(11:45):
on and hey, my husband owns a company.
I own the company too as well.
Then you listen to what I do.
And headstrong Italian men probablydidn't take kindly to that.
So they basically.
So a lawyer net, they go toEnzo and say, she's got to go.
It's either her or us.
Well, guess what?
They went, which there were some very,very prominent people that left the
company on that day, but then alsoelevated Ferrari because of for Gary
(12:10):
came on board, you know, was there andvery young was early twenties and he
gets elevated to the team manager, allthis stuff and everything happened.
It seemed, you know, Hey, itall worked out, obviously.
Enzo Bacchus and he kicked them out.
So even though all those problems werethere that head butting everything like
that He still stood by and I'm supportingmy wife, which was awesome to see, you
(12:30):
know, so everyone leaves So there'sa big swift times change whatnot They
had the next couple years in the racingdepartment that did not go very well
because I want to say starting fromscratch But basically is because you
know, you have that core that's working.
I think they all leave.
Okay, you guys start over So for thenext two seasons They didn't do too good.
Obviously, they came roaring back.
We know what happened after that.
They just dominated F1.
(12:52):
They dominated enduranceracing, everything, everything
and everything under the sun.
Taking lemons, makinglemonade, I guess you say.
So that was kind of an interestinglittle dynamic, even though, and
I don't want to say animosity, butI want to say, you know, just the
friction between Enzo and Laura.
Going on, he still stood behind her.
And up until 1970 in Italy, youcouldn't get divorced anyways because
(13:13):
the Catholic Church wouldn't allow itbecause you had to go to the church
to get permission to get divorced.
So unless there was some really strenuouscircumstances that would justify, you
weren't getting divorced back then.
It wasn't happening.
I guess maybe that goes back tothings, hey, you could have a mistress,
whatnot, but hey, you kept the familytogether, everything like that.
So in this time, then all of asudden, Laura finds out about Lena.
Lardy, Enzo's mistress.
(13:34):
And Piero!
Watching the Ferrari movie, youprobably saw all this stuff about
her hunting her down or anything.
Now, a lot of that's relativelytrue in regards to her laying
down the law and fighting it.
But one of the big things that came outof that is says, Piero will not take your
last name, Enzo, until after I'm dead.
He was always Pyrrha, now in the moviethey say it somehow is true because
Lena Lardy, she kept everythingclose to the chest and she wouldn't
(13:56):
divulge much and kudos to her.
Now hey, it's no one's business, it'sher business, between her and Enzo.
But after obviously the Lord died in 1978,Piero took the last name Ferrari, and
there you go, as Enzo's only survivingson, who's still alive today, and he's
got his own kids, and one of them isnamed Enzo, I think, going to school
in California, something like that,so, the legacy lives on, and I think
(14:16):
he owns 5%, 10 percent of the car, Idon't know, he's got a nice chunk of it,
where, you know, he's, Obviously havingthat last name he's, he's enjoying life.
All this is going on and Lenadoes not live all that far.
She lives in Modena and the fact isshe's not living all that far from
where Laura and them are living.
It's not like she's on the otherside of the country or other side
of the world or anything like that.
(14:37):
Obviously back then you're notfollowing someone on Instagram
or Facebook stalking them.
Enzo put them up in a nice littlehouse, you know, Laura and them,
they were living in this apartment.
Again, it's something you tryand wrap your head around now.
You're just like, how is that possible?
How can you, you know, it'slike, there's just no way.
I mean, you hear storiesand stuff all the time.
And you know, he had a secondfamily, all this stuff.
But back then it was,oh, that's his mistress.
Oh, this and that, you know, it wasjust basically, oh, that's what that is.
(14:59):
So anyways, you know, she justput it to him after the fact.
And she got involved with Ferrari,which I believe her involvement.
I want to say save the company.
Now, I know in the movie they kind ofsaid, Oh, she had half the shares and then
she needed to give some back to him andshe wanted a half a million dollars, dah,
dah, dah, about the timeframes were offand whatnot, and it's basically not true.
Obviously that thing for the story, forthe movie, you got to build something up.
(15:22):
That wasn't true, but she did have theownership in the company, but having
that half the shares and all this stuffand holding it over Enzo's head, as
far as anyone knows, and as far as Iknow, I could find that wasn't true.
She was a very prominentfigure with Ferrari.
And I honestly think her role in thestory of Ferrari itself, the company
needs to be, I want to say moreprominent in regards to what her roles
(15:44):
and what she did and how much sheactually contributed to the company.
Cause again, I think when shestepped in and started doing
the finances and everything likethat, that wasn't Enzo's forte.
His thing was corralling goodpeople, getting them to do
what he wanted them to do.
And he was a leader, got the right people,put them in the right positions and
just cracked the whip, going like that.
Accounting wasn't his thing ofdoing finance, but you know, Laura,
(16:04):
she stepped in and I honestlybelieve, I think she saved the
company, kept it from going under.
Probably had a huge part in that.
Yes, he built great road cars for that,but you got to remember they weren't
building all that many cars back then.
So it wasn't like they're cranking outtens of thousands of cars a year and
say, Oh, we got all this money coming in.
It was a tight thing.
And the amount of race cars and racingthey're doing, I mean, you got to go
(16:25):
to shipping, all this kind of stuff.
I mean, there's a lot ofcosts involved in that.
So it's like.
You got to get moneyfor someone or whatnot.
So you got to mind your P's and Q's.
So I believe she needs to be recognizedmore in regards to the story of Ferrari
itself, the company and stepping in.
And again, a lot of this stuff youread about is, I would say hearsay, but
(16:46):
it's from stories from other people.
Everyone's, Oh, it's this or that.
Some of the stuff you can figureout like Laura and Enzo's mother.
He didn't get along, but.
How common is that, that the daughterin law doesn't, doesn't get along with
their mother in law and especiallyback then because the hierarchy was and
everything like that, your mother wasGod, so to speak, you know, it's just
(17:06):
commonplace, but you hear those storiesand I just think she's always been put
in a negative light wrongly, what sheput up with, what she had to deal with.
Enzo was a difficult,difficult man, ego, whatnot.
I mean, just, For what she had to do andwhat she had to tolerate, a mistress.
A mistress having Enzo's lovechild, and that kind of situation.
(17:28):
Being accepted or what not backthen, still doesn't matter.
I mean, it's a slap in theface in regards to your wife.
It's like, you don't respect me.
But again, it's just sucha different time back then.
You know, and then you're talking, youknow, a time it was in Italy, that was
old world, just different, different time.
So, I hope you appreciated my ramblings.
About Laura Ferrari and like you saidcelebrating women's history month here
(17:52):
I wanted to get out there look I thinkfor her role what she did and contributed
to Ferrari is Undervalued and I thinkthere needs to be more Celebration of
regards to how much she contributedto the company I honestly believe
she saved it from financial ruin whenshe finally started taking over the
finances, getting involved more, goingto the races, everything like that.
I think she actuallyprobably saved the company.
(18:13):
So I think she needs to be celebrateda lot more in regards to the story
of Ferrari to where it is today.
Because everythingalways lines up in place.
You look at something that'sgetting close to 100 years old.
It's an entity lasting that long.
You have your ups, your downs,your peaks, your valleys.
All these things happen.
Hindsight, you can look and say, oh well.
That happened, the PalaceRevolt, but then this happened,
(18:34):
which was successful for them.
So it's like, oh, look it,the man upstairs, oh, he's got
a plan, that kind of stuff.
Everything lined up, but you know, certainthings, I think, you know, also happen
that you just, they don't get spoken aboutor I don't think they get brought to more
people's attention in regards to that.
I just feel that she needs to becelebrated more in regards to this
history and the story of Ferrari.
That's all I want to say about that.
Again, I appreciate you guys listening.
(18:56):
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I appreciate you listening.
Celebrate Women's History Month.
If your mom's still around, giveher a big kiss because without
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