#WeDriveMotorsport

Italian excellence also includes motor racing tracks. Emilia Romagna counts four of them: Varano de’ Melegari (Parma), Misano Adriatico (Rimini), Modena and most importantly Imola (Bologna), celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Not only did Autodromo Internazionale “Enzo e Dino Ferrari” host the Grand Prix of Italy in 1980, followed by 26 editions of the San Marino Grand Prix (1981-2006) and the Made in Italy and Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from 2020, but it also was the backdrop for a dramatic reconciliation between Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) e Niki Lauda (1949-2019). It was the spring of 1982 and a test session was taking place in Imola. The session was attended by Austrian champion Niki Lauda, who returned to wearing his race suit at the wheel of the McLaren-Porsche after a three-year absence, and would win his third world title in 1984 with Ron Dennis and John Barnard’s MP4/4. Unusually enough, Enzo Ferrari traveled to Imola to observe Villeneuve’s tests only to find Niki Lauda, his former driver. Signed in 1974 partly on the advice of Clay Regazzoni, the Austrian had won his first Drivers Championship in Monza in 1975, thus ending for Maranello a drought that had lasted for 11 seasons. What seemed to be the beginning of a long and successful partnership was utterly altered by the Nurburgring fire on 1 August 1976. Enzo Ferrari and the Ferrari Team were skeptical that the Austrian, who had been in life-threatening conditions for so long, could return to his former self, so much so that they hired Carlos Reutemann for the final part of the season as well as the following one. By the time Niki Lauda and Enzo Ferrari won the Championship again in 1977, they had become estranged. They parted ways and had a fall out. “In time, I came to regret that behavior,” Lauda would later say, “for it was not right that I, a young, successful and wealthy driver, should turn on Enzo Ferrari, who was already feeling the weight of his 78 years.” The first step towards reconciliation was Lauda’s
congratulatory telegram for Jody Scheckter’s 1979 World Championship victory, though Imola was the real breakthrough. “He hugged me as if I were his own son,” Niki commented.
“In Imola, he showed me that he cared for me more than he let on”. In 1987, due to a commitment, Lauda was unable to attend the 40th anniversary of the car factory. Little did he know that it would be the last chance to see his big old man again.