Description
By: Franco Gozzi .
Motoring and motor sport books of the last 50 years have analysed the Ferrari phenomenon and the life of its creator right down to the smallest detail, so much so that publishing a new volume today on the House of Maranello and Enzo Ferrari is a riskyand difficult business for fear of duplicating what has already been said and reproducing pictures that have already been seen. But there is no problem if the man telling his long and passionate story is Franco Gozzi, who was at Enzo Ferrari's side for more than 40 uninterrupted years as adviser, consultant, press officer and motor sport director, shadowing his boss in everything he did. Cozzi's book is not a cold chronological sequence of facts, names and racing results, but an accurate historical reconstruction born of direct experience and told with an ironical style that deeply involves the reader.
His is a novel of 70 stories, in which the leading characters are the cars, the drivers and the various personalities that have contributed to creating and consolidating the legend, from Enzo Ferrari's as a driver to the Michael Schumacher era.
Born in Modena, Italy. on 29 November 1932, Franco Cozzi knows Enzo Ferrari and the company he created better than anyone else. Cozzi graduated in jurisprudence and seemed to be heading for a banking career when, due to one of those quirks of fate that can change a person's life, he was asked to meet Ferrari and help him draft the thesis for the honorary degree he received in 1960.
Dr. Cozzi must have done a good job, because one hot day in August 1960 he was officially employed by the Prancing Horse, where he enjoyed a long and remarkable career. He was sales director Gerolamo Gardini's assistant until 1961, when the Boss entrusted him with the delicate job of chief press officer. At that point, Cozzi became Enzo Ferrari's spokesperson, his filter - in a word his confidante. Cozzi was promoted to motor sport director of the Racing Department in 1968, a position he held until the second half of 1970. when he returned to Enzo Ferrari's side. where he would remain.
When Ferrari died in 1988. the company's new management sent Cozzi back to the racing circuits of the world starting with Monza of that year. first as a consultant to motor sport director Pier Giorgio Capelli and then as Cesare Fiorio's press office chief.
In 1993. Gozzi was appointed assistant to a newly arrived president. Luca di Montezemolo. a task he performed for two years until his retirement. after which Gozzi brought his career at Ferrari to a close with a further year's consultancy.
