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Luca di to become President once again |
It is
soon to be officially announced that Luca Cordero di Montezemolo,
Ferrari's president, will become the president of Italian Manufacturers'
Association (Confindustria).
His effort in being president was even easier after the retirement of
the previous president, Nicola Tognana, a person who had participated in
rallies with Ferrari, and won the Italian championship in 1982. After
the heavy defeat in the voting of AssoLombardia, he decided not to be a
candidate for the next elections of "Confindustria" because: "The
Confindustria must not be worn away in a battle to the last vote for the
nomination of its next president. Because of that, to forehead of the
last developments of the consultation and, above all, the pronouncement
of Assolombarda, I have decided to withdraw my candidacy ", auguring
also a "Good Job" for Montezemolo.
Piero Fassino has declared to Reuters "It seems to me as an optimal
candidacy. Having the fortune to know Luca di Montezemolo personally
since many years I know that he is a man in a position to represent the
Italian entrepreneurship well and holding account of the various ones
sensibilities and requirements that our entrepreneurial system
expresses".
Now Luca di Montezemolo will have a second priority in his workforce. As
well as being Ferrari's president he will also become president of the
Italian Manufactures' Association. Some would say that this will be bad
for Ferrari because Luca will be concentrated in his workforce for
Confindustria and he will leave aside a bit his workforce at Ferrari. I
don't think so. Luca has given all his life for Ferrari. He was born in
1947. A sign of fate? I don't know. But i know that 1947 was the year
that the first Ferrari car appeared. His family lived in a small villa
south of Bologna. Later, he became a law student at the University of
Rome. It was then that he firstly developed his interest in cars,
entering rallies with a Fiat 124 and sometimes taking part in the San
Remo Rally. In the rallying world he met Jean Todt, a young man who was
a navigator of Hannu Mikkola and Cesare Fiorio.
His first contact with Enzo Ferrari seems again as a sing of fate...He
appeared in a popular radio programme, Chiamate Roma 3131, talking about
the fortunes of Ferrari grand prix team. Enzo Ferrari was sometimes
hearing at the radio when he was writting letters and he heard the
programme. Three days later, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo received a
package in the post. It was a copy of Ferrari's memoir Le mie gioie
terribili, inscribed by Enzo: "To Luca di Montezemolo, who has the
courage of his words and his actions". Luca left to America to study
international relations at Columbia University.
Over Christmas of 1972, Luca went home in Bologna and telephoned Ferrari
to request a meeting. Enzo's response was: "I need someone like you.
It's a pity you are going back to America". Luca decided to give up his
courses and in June 1973 he returned to Italy for his first day's work
at Maranello, as direttore sportivo! There were several gossips for Luca
these days, like that he was already a Fiat appointment, or even a
member of the Agnelli clan. Luca denied all these rumours.
He made many good moves during his presence at Maranello. He is the man
who brought back to the team Mauro Forghieri, he is the man who decided
to bring Niki Lauda to the team, he was the man who guided the team to
F1 World titles with Niki Lauda in 1975 and 1977, he is then man who
from November 1991 guided the company to a gold financial status as
chairman and managing director of Ferrari SpA, he is the man who
achieved the ambition of thousand Tifosi allover the world, of winning
the Formula 1 World Championship again after years.
Maybe he will remain as Ferrari's president keeping helping her, maybe
Jean Todt will become one day Ferrari's president, maybe Piero Ferrari,
maybe...who knows? All these seems to me like signs of fate, so I
believe that his presidency of Confindustria will fill another page in
Ferrari's golden history.
FORZA FERRARI!!!Theodoros Dragonas
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