Enzo Ferrari Quotes
110 Enzo Ferrari Quotes
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[On rejecting a corporate merger between Ferrari and Ford] My rights, my integrity, my very being as a manufacturer, as an entrepreneur, as the leader of the Ferrari works, cannot work under the enormous machine, the suffocating bureaucracy of the Ford Motor Company!
Enzo Ferrari
[On his legendary 1962 red racer] Gran Turismo Omologato.
Enzo Ferrari
I remember with how much insistence, with which arguments and how much competent attention Dino observed and discussed all the memorandums that I took home to him every day from Maranello. Finally, a selection was made in favour of a V6 for reasons of mechanical yield and bulk. That is how the famous 156 was born…
Enzo Ferrari
My cars must be beautiful. But more than that, they must not stop out on the circuit. For then people will say, ‘What a pity, it was so pretty.’
Enzo Ferrari
[On his cars] They have more horsepower, and they don’t break down.
Enzo Ferrari
A man builds something, a beautiful machine. He puts all of himself into it. And then he goes to races and see his machines, this part of himself, being maltreated, and… [Putting his hand over his heart] And so I do not go to races because it hurts me – here.
Enzo Ferrari
[‘You mean you suffer for the car, not the driver?’] The driver too, of course.
Enzo Ferrari
I have always loved V12 twin-six engines, ever since I saw photographs of the first V12 twin-six Packard at Indianapolis back in 1914 and the Delage that came in second at Lyons in 1924. I have always loved the sound of the engine…
Enzo Ferrari
[On why he didn’t demonstrate emotion if one of his race drivers was killed] My teacher Antonio Ascari [A great racer driver], told me that he didn’t show any sentiment with his wife and son because he didn’t want them to feel so badly when he was gone.
Enzo Ferrari
[On giving credit to the drivers for Ferrari being what it is today] It’s because of you, because of what you’ve risked, because of what you have created for us that we are what we are.
Enzo Ferrari
[In 1965] My loyalty to Shell springs from my experience with automobiles. 14 world championships have resulted from this happy association with shell.
Enzo Ferrari
[In 1952] The victory of Alberto Ascari in one of our Ferrari cars in the 22nd Grand Prix of Italy at 115.547 miles per hour average, established new all-time records for the Monza track, and also established the highest speed attained in European circuits.
Enzo Ferrari
[In 1952] We attribute a great deal of the merit of our success in the Grand Prix of England, Grand Prix of Italy and the Mexican Pan-American Race to the magnificent performance and unfailing dependability of Champion Spark Plugs.
Enzo Ferrari
What life means to a young man who is leaving it?
Enzo Ferrari
[On his son Dino Ferrari passing away] The match is lost. I have lost my son… The only thing I can say is: God, help me to be a good man.
Enzo Ferrari
All we wanted to do was to build a conventional engine, only one that would be outstanding.
Enzo Ferrari
[On the Mille Miglia race in 1957] It is the race of the people. One may say that the whole of Italy leans forward with her eyes on the tarred strip of road somewhere along the course on Mille Miglia day. It is a day when I feel my life is useful.
Enzo Ferrari
[In 1957 on being served court papers on a Ferrari driver racing death in the Mille Miglia race] Why should I continue in an activity whose only reward is being branded a murderer?
Enzo Ferrari
It does not seem to me that I have ever committed a bad act.
Enzo Ferrari
I have regretted often, but repented never. Is this a good thing?
Enzo Ferrari
It is my opinion that there are innate gifts that are a peculiarity of certain regions and that, transferred into industry, these propensities may at times acquire an exceptional importance… In Modena, where I was born and set up my own works, there is a species of psychosis for racing cars.
Enzo Ferrari
[On being a passenger with Tazio Nuvolari (‘The Flying Mantuan’) during pre-race practice] At the first bend, I had the clear sensation that we would end up in a ditch; I felt myself stiffen as I waited for the crunch. Instead, we found ourselves on the next straight with the car in a perfect position. I looked at Nuvolari. His rugged face was calm, just as it always was, and certainly not the face of someone who had just escaped a hair-raising spin.
Enzo Ferrari
I want to build a car that’s faster than all of them, and then I want to die.
Enzo Ferrari
[To Phil Hill] How would you like to drive for me at Le Mans?
Enzo Ferrari
The dream became bigger, much bigger, to build a car, that doesn’t slow in the curves, that flies without leaving the ground…
Enzo Ferrari
[In 1980] I asked myself, why can’t I myself become a great racing driver one day? And all my acts after that were merely the consequence of an adolescent dream.
Enzo Ferrari
[When he wanted to eulogise a driver] I see a little of [Tazio] Nurolari in you.
Enzo Ferrari
You remind me of Nuvolari.
Enzo Ferrari
[On his first Ferrari Grand Prix] If it had gone badly, I had decided I would stop this type of activity with a Grand Prix car, which revealed itself an ambition that was too demanding for my means.
Enzo Ferrari
The money that we earn from the sale of the 125 Sports is swallowed up by the open wheel cars, a well without bottom. On top of that there is little possibility of success, because the Alfa 158 and the Maserati 4CLT are practically unbeatable.
Enzo Ferrari
If it goes badly, I’m not going to spend money on this kind of motor sport any more.
Enzo Ferrari
I told you that one was no Formula One canary.
Enzo Ferrari
In Maranello, I created a factory that made cars known all over the world. Fiat turned it into a real industrial concern.
Enzo Ferrari
Ever since I built the first 1500, I had had ambitious plans for launching out into the manufacture of high quality cars. I remembered that I had joined Alfa Romeo when they were endeavouring to produce a car a day, and I too had hopes of achieving this same target.
Enzo Ferrari
The demands of mass production are contrary to my temperament, for I am mainly interested in promoting new developments. I should like to put something new into my cars every morning – an inclination that terrifies my staff. Were my wishes in this respect to be indulged, there would be no production of standard models at all, but only a succession of prototypes.
Enzo Ferrari
[In 1963] There is little that I try out in today’s cars which has not already been tried in the past – perhaps in a hurried or summary manner – and discarded before its real possibilities were full ascertained. It is consequently not so much inventions which are needed as conscientious elaboration.
Enzo Ferrari
I underestimated the importance of the chassis. I have always given great importance to the engine and much less to the chassis, endeavouring to squeeze out as much power as possible in the conviction that it is engine power which is – not 50% but 80% responsible for success on the track.
Enzo Ferrari
Just as many people had predicted our 12 cylinder turned out to be the crowing glory of my ambitions, the basis of all Ferrari engines.
Enzo Ferrari
I gave the 4, 6 and 8 cylinder a chance. We even built a bi-cylinder. But the classical 12 cylinder engine remains my trademark and certainly the most popular of my engines.
Enzo Ferrari
When one has this extra power, chassis deficiencies are not a handicap, but when competitors have engines of a power approaching one’s own and as reliable as one’s own, then they suddenly become important.
Enzo Ferrari
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