Ferrari's True Story & Enzo Ferrari's Real Life

Summary The film Ferrari is a biographical sports thriller based on Enzo Ferrari's life and a 1991 biography by Brock Yates.

The movie aims to be as accurate as possible, featuring real people from Enzo Ferrari's life and career, while still adding dramatic elements.

Enzo Ferrari's family, the Ferrari car empire, and the controversy surrounding driver deaths are key parts of the story.

Ferrari shines a spotlight on the life of Enzo Ferrari, an Italian motor racing driver and the founder of the car manufacturer Ferrari. The biographical sports thriller, directed by Michael Mann and written by Troy Kennedy Martin, is based on Brock Yates' 1991 biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine, which recounts Enzo Ferrari's true story. Obviously, Enzo is at the center of the story in the 2023 movie, but the biopic also features other members of the Ferrari family and several figures in his life during the summer of 1957.

All the characters in Ferrari are based on real people, and the biographical sports thriller tried to be as accurate to Enzo Ferrari's life as possible. However, the director and writer had to change a few aspects of the story to dramatize the narrative and turn it into a sensible overarching plot in the film. Nevertheless, several parts of Mann's Ferrari were accurate to real life, including the tragic death of Enzo and Laura Ferrari's son Dino, the 1957 Mille Miglia crash, and the scrutiny Ferrari faced afterward.

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Enzo Ferrari's Racer Career Explained

Enzo Was A Race Car Driver Before He Founded Ferrari

Enzo Ferrari was born on February 18, 1898, in Modena, Italy, to parents Alfredo Ferrari and Adalgisa Bisbini. According to Biography, Enzo's father and brother died from the flu during World War I, and Enzo himself got sick, so he was exempt from serving. Enzo was left to provide for himself and his mother, so he began fixing cars for a living. He became a mechanic and driver for Alfa Romeo in the 1920s, and it was clear that he had a knack and passion for racing (but Adam Driver wasn't allowed to drive the cars in Ferrari).

Enzo Ferrari competed in the 1923 Grand Prix in Ravenna on the Savio Circuit and won.

1924 was Enzo's most successful year, having three wins at the Grand Prix — in Ravenna on the Savio Circuit, Polesine on the Polesine Circuit, and Pescara on the Coppa Acerbo. However, he soon started to lose interest in racing, and 1924 was the final year he won a Grand Prix. Enzo married Laura Garello in 1923, and the couple had their first child, Alfredo "Dino" Ferrari, on January 19, 1932. By then, Enzo's professional racing career was long behind him, and he was looking ahead to other ventures.

Related Ferrari: Release Date, Cast & Everything We Know About Michael Mann's Enzo Ferrari Biopic Director Michael Mann is back with a biopic about Enzo Ferrari, and here's everything we know about the epic Adam Driver-starring film.

Building The Ferrari Car Empire

Enzo Ferrari Founded Ferrari In 1939

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After leaving Alfa Romeo in 1939, Enzo Ferrari pursued his new dream of owning his own car manufacturing company and founded Auto Avio Costruzioni in his birth town, Modena, Italy. Auto Avio Costruzioni originally only supplied parts to other racing teams due to a contract clause. But after a certain number of years, the company was able to make its own cars. Of course, it took some time to get the ball rolling, and World War II certainly did not help. But Auto Avio Costruzioni's first car, the 125, was released in May 1947.

In 1960, the car manufacturing company became public, and Ferrari continued to branch out and take bold approaches regarding car designs, as seen in Michael Mann's movie.

The 125 won its first race just a short few weeks later. Auto Avio Costruzioni's cars continued to do well in racing competitions, meaning that demand for them quickly spiked in the late 1940s. Ferrari (which changed its name from Auto Avio Costruzioni to Ferrari in 1945) continued to grow in popularity. By 1949, the company started making touring cars and shipping them worldwide, even to the United States. In 1960, the car manufacturing company became public, and Ferrari continued to branch out and take bold approaches regarding car designs, as seen in Michael Mann's movie.

The Death Of Dino Ferrari

Enzo & Laura's Son Died In 1956

Enzo and Laura Ferrari's world came crashing down around them when their son, Alfredo "Dino" Ferrari, died on June 30, 1956, at the age of 24. Dino was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy while he was working for his father's company, and unfortunately, the young man's health would continue to deteriorate as the years passed. He became bedridden in 1955, and one year later, Dino died in his hometown of Modena, Italy.

Ferrari Cast Role Adam Driver Enzo Ferrari Penélope Cruz Laura Ferrari Shailene Woodley Lina Lardi Sarah Gadon Linda Christian Gabriel Leone Alfonso de Portago Jack O'Connell Peter Collins Patrick Dempsey Piero Taruffi Michele Savoia Carlo Chiti Erik Haugen Edmund Nelson Daniela Piperno Adalgisa Ferrari Benedetto Benedettini Dino Ferrari Giuseppe Festinese Piero Lardi Tommaso Basili Gianni Agnelli

As depicted in the 2023 biopic Ferrari, Dino's death took a major toll on his parents and their marriage, even though Enzo and Laura never got a divorce. Enzo and Dino were very close as they bonded over their shared love for cars, so his son's death significantly affected the founder of Ferrari. Dino was meant to be Enzo's successor in the car manufacturing company, but his death drastically changed the course of Ferrari's future.

Ferrari's Bankruptcy Scare Explained

Ferrari Had To Sell 50 Percent Of Its Shares To Fiat

Even though Ferrari stressed the car manufacturing company's financial problems, Ferrari struggled to stay afloat in the late 1950s and 1960s. Consequently, winning the Mille Miglia was vital for Ferrari's future. Despite Scuderia Ferrari driver Piero Taruffi coming out on top in the 1957 open road race in Italy, Enzo Ferrari was forced to sell 50 percent of his company's shares to Fiat in 1969 to keep it afloat. Ferrari had initially approached Ford for the business transaction, but negotiations between the two companies fell through and Enzo turned to Fiat.

The 1957 Mille Miglia Crash

11 People Died

One of the most important moments in the 2023 biographical sports film was the tragic car crash at the Mille Miglia in May 1957. Scuderia Ferrari driver Alfonso de Portago crashed his car during the race when his tire malfunctioned, causing him to hit a telephone pole and swerve into a crowd before coming to a stop in a ditch. De Portago and his navigator, Edmund Nelson, died on impact, while nine citizens (including five children) in the crowd also lost their lives that day.

The deaths of those 11 people at the 1957 Mille Miglia completely changed how the public viewed Ferrari (in the movie and in real life).

Although the Ferrari crash scene received some criticism, it was the most consequential sequence in the biopic. The deaths of those 11 people at the 1957 Mille Miglia completely changed how the public viewed Ferrari (in the movie and in real life). Ferrari's ending depicts this awful tragedy and holds nothing back as the scene is shocking and disturbing.

Related Ford v. Ferrari Is The Perfect Sequel To 2023 Movie With 72% On Rotten Tomatoes James Mangold's Ford v. Ferrari is the perfect spiritual successor to a notable Michael Mann biopic and is widely considered the better of the two.

Ferrari's Multiple Driver Deaths Sparked Controversy

Enzo Ferrari Was Charged With Manslaughter

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Ferrari started to come under fire in the late 1950s and 1960s when numerous racers behind the wheel of the company's cars got into tragic accidents. As mentioned above, 11 people died during the 1957 Mille Miglia when Scuderia Ferrari driver Alfonso de Portago crashed his car. Following the accident, Enzo Ferrari was charged with manslaughter since it was his company's tires that failed and led to the deaths. But he was ultimately found innocent, and the charges were dropped.

Ferrari is available to stream on Hulu.

Despite the verdict, the incident cast a shadow on the Ferrari name, and more deaths added fuel to the fire. Multiple other racers, like Luigi Musso, Peter Collins, and Wolfgang von Trips, died while driving Ferrari cars. Ferrari grew a reputation for sending racers to their deaths, even during a time when racing was an extremely lethal sport, no matter which car an athlete drove. Regardless, Ferrari was a big name, and the controversy surrounding the car manufacturing company ran deep following several tragic deaths.

Enzo Ferrari's Family Explained: Multiple Wives, Sons, & Death

Enzo Ferrari Had Many Affairs

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As seen in Michael Mann's critically acclaimed movie Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari had a complicated family life. He married Laura Garello on April 28, 1932, and they had one son together — Dino. Following Dino's death in 1956, Enzo and Laura's marriage began to take a turn for the worse quickly. However, they would continue to be married until Laura died in 1978.

Aside from his relationship with Lina Lardi, Enzo Ferrari (who was obsessed with sex) admitted to having numerous affairs while married to Laura.

During Enzo and Laura's estrangement, Enzo had an affair with Lina Lardi in the 1940s, which led to the birth of his second son, Piero, on May 22, 1945. Divorce was illegal in Italy at the time, so, Enzo could not formally recognize Piero as his son until after Laura's death (despite Ferrari claiming it was Laura's insistence that prevented Enzo from claiming Piero as his son and granting him the Ferrari name). Piero, who now goes by Piero Ferrari, is the current vice chairman of Ferrari.

Related Why Christian Bale Was Replaced By Adam Driver In Michael Mann's Ferrari Movie Michael Mann’s Ferrari is set to release in December 2023, yet Christian Bale will not play the titular role after dropping out of production in 2016.

When Enzo Ferrari Died & How Old He Was

Ferrari Died In The Late 1980s

Thirty years after the events of Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari was diagnosed with leukemia and died from the disease on August 14, 1988, in Maranello, Italy. He was 90 years old. Per Enzo's wishes, the public did not learn about his death until August 16, a day after his family buried his body. Even following Enzo's death, Ferrari has continued to be a household name, and now, more people can learn about the man behind the company in the 2023 movie Ferrari.

Ferrari Ferrari is a dramatized biopic about Enzo Ferrari, detailing his family problems and his struggle to prepare for the 1957 Mille Miglia. The film stars Adam driver as Enzo Ferrari, alongside Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, and Gabriel Leone. Heat director Michael Mann helms the film and also worked on Ferrari's script. Release Date December 25, 2023 Distributor(s) Neon , STXfilms Runtime 130 Minutes

Source: Biography