This year marks its 75th anniversary, and few names in the automobile industry inspire the same aura of mystery and legend that
surrounds Ferrari. However, people are what really matter, always, and Maranello recently lost one of its titans. At the age of 87,
Mauro Forghieri, the Italian engineer whose ingenuity, drive, and perseverance propelled Scuderia Ferrari to unprecedented heights,
departed from this life. He oversaw a team of engineers that helped Ferrari win 54 GPs, seven constructors’ crowns, and four drivers’
championships.
Born in Modena on January 13, 1935, Forghieri was perhaps destined to follow in the footsteps of the city’s most well-known son.
Reclus, his father, was an Old Man employee and a machinist. After earning his mechanical engineering degree from the esteemed
University of Bologna in 1959, Mauro Forghieri was also there quite quickly. He was employed by Ferrari as an apprentice in the
engine division, where he collaborated with other recent hire Gian Paolo Dallara as well as Vittorio Jano, Carlo Chiti, and Romolo
Tavoni. During the stormy times for Ferrari, which included the infamous 1961 “Palace revolt” that resulted in the bitter departure of
several senior technical staff members, Forghieri was unexpectedly promoted to the esteemed post of technical director for Scuderia
Ferrari. He was only 27 years old.
He was being made by it. As he succeeded Chiti, he finished the modifications that he and Giotto Bizzarrini had started on the 250
GTO, one of Ferrari’s most renowned endurance racers. John Surtees, a British driver, won the driver’s and constructor’s titles in 1964
while he was in charge of Ferrari, driving the Forghieri-designed 158. Ferrari was having success in sports car racing at the same
period, having won the Le Mans with the 250P, 275P, and 250 LM. Then there was the Daytona 24 Hours-winning Ferrari 330 P3/4,
which is regarded by many as the best Ferrari competitive vehicle ever. Ferrari installed a rear wing on its car for the first time in the
1968 Belgian Grand Prix, which enabled Chris Amon to qualify four seconds faster than Jackie
Although the Scuderia’s success in Formula One came and went, Forghieri played a key role in the team’s recovery in the 1970s. His
ground-breaking 312 T, with its flat-12 engine, transverse gearbox, and sleek design, propelled Niki Lauda to victory in the 1975
championship. After a turbulent 1976 season in which he nearly lost his life in the German Grand Prix, Lauda won the championship
for Ferrari once more in 1977. In 1979, Jody Scheckter won a third driver’s championship in one of Forghieri’s vehicles; nonetheless,
the flat-12’s design was rendered ineffective due to ground-effect aerodynamics. He was unfazed by the introduction of turbocharging,
though, as Ferrari was the first team to win the constructor’s championship in 1982 with a turbo power unit—a feat they accomplished
in spite of the passing of
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