By Robert Haile

Sky Original Ferrari launches in cinemas across the UK with Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz starring as Enzo and Laura Ferrari.

The film, premiered at Venice Film Festival, is set at a pivotal point in the company’s and Enzo’s life.

“It is the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle of Formula 1, ex-racer Enzo Ferrari is in crisis. Bankruptcy threatens the factory he and his wife, Laura built from nothing ten years earlier.

“Their volatile marriage has been battered by the loss of their son, Dino a year earlier. Ferrari struggles to acknowledge his son Piero with Lina Lardi.

“Meanwhile, his drivers’ passion to win pushes them to the edge as they launch into the treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy, the Mille Miglia.”

The Ferrari Story

Enzo Ferrari or The Grand Old Man was born in Moderna on February 20, 1898 and would go on to found one of the world’s most recognisable brands.

A racer himself Enzo mainly seems to have mainly raced in Italy and joined Alfa Romeo in 1920 and from 1929 it was under the Scuderia Ferrari name.

With the birth of his son Alfredo ‘Dino’ Ferrari, Enzo retired and moved in management of the Alfa Romeo race team where the prancing horse emblem would first be displayed.

In 1937 the Scuderia Ferrari team was dissolved and returned to Alfa Romeo under the name Alfa Corse with Enzo as Sporting Director and two years later he left after a disagreement.

Founding his own company in 1939 supplying parts to other racers as he was restricted from racing or designing cars for four years, the Second World War brought changes and a move to Maranello.

Ferrari as we know today was founded in 1947 and first entered a race in 1948 and claimed their first victory in the same year.

1949 brought the team their first major title with Luigi Chinetti and Peter Mitchell-Thomson, Baron Selsdon of Scotland, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Entry into the new Drivers World Championship or Formula One followed in 1950 with José Froilán González beating Alfa Romeo at Silverstone in 1951 with Enzo crying and declaring theatrically: “I cried for joy. But my tears of enthusiasm were mixed with those of sorrow because I thought, ‘today I have killed my mother.’”

The first Drivers World Championship came in 1952 with Alberto Ascari who made it two with success in 1953 before Ferrari made an attempt at the Indianapolis 500.

The twenty fourth and last Mille Miglia in 1957 was a disastrous race for Ferrari with driver Alfonso de Portago, co-driver/navigator Edmund Nelson and nine spectators dying when the Ferrari 335 S burst a tyre.

Enzo was involved in a manslaughter charge for the accident that was dropped in 1961.

Deaths

High speed racing has always been a dangerous and deadly sport that has thankfully become a lot safer in modern times.

Alfonso de Portago death along with his navigator and 9 spectators brought an end to the Mille Miglia as the event was cancelled three days later, though it now takes place with tighter restrictions.

Ferrari’s two time Alberto Ascari was at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on May 25, 1955 to watch Eugenio Castellotti test the Ferrari 750 Monza they were to drive in the 1000km Monza race.

Deciding on the day on drive Ascari in Castellotti’ white helmet and wearing a suit and tie headed out on to the track.

The car skidded and flipped twice coming out of the Curva del Vialone, one of the track’s challenging high-speed corners where Ascari died within minutes of the accident, corner has been replaced and renamed, now called Variante Ascari.

While these were just two under Enzo the Mille Miglia ended with 56 known fatalities of which 35 happened during the period of 1948-57.