McLaren like Juventus – #ItalianGP

For the first time since many years I will follow the Italian Grand Prix just as a spectator, without any direct involvement. There are many memories I have of my presence on the track, many beautiful, some bad ones. I was lucky to have had the opportunity to write the press releases of beautiful victories, like those of Schumacher in 2000 and 2003, or historical moments, such as the end of the career (the first one) of Michael in 2006, which happily coincided with the victory of the German driver. That day we had prepared at least three different versions of the long statement, to be chosen based on the result: Michael took us from any embarrassment, winning in front of the driver, Raikkonen, which would take his place the following year.

There were also reported difficult, like that of 2005, a Grand Prix where we finished in tenth and twelfth place, the worst result since 1992, while I was glad to have left to my successor Renato Bisignani the task of writing the one of last year, coinciding among others with the well-known declarations of Marchionne about Montezemolo as well as the fun of defending against the assaults of the reporters on the occasion of the geniuses/stupid acoustic discussion in 2013.

One of the most beautiful press releases – for the result, of course ☺! – was that of 2010. The victory of Fernando, the third place of Felipe and the team to the podium to take a picture with the trophies before going home: a magical moment, a feeling that only in Monza you can try. And, finally, a beautiful dinner very late at night – after an appearance at the Domenica Sportiva – at the Montana restaurant, one of those special occasions when you create a current only among those who are present and shoud remain confidential to be really remember and not disclosed to the the media as it happens now.

I mentioned the podium: if there is one thing that makes Monza all the more special is the podium, projected above the main straight. The memory of that photo – as in almost all the photos of the 94 victories that I wrote the press release, I am not in the photo – remains one of the most cherished of my career in Ferrari.

And a picture is perhaps the best memory of Monza. A particular picture, where there are no drivers or cars, but a banner, displayed on the main grandstand in front of our garage on the Thursday of the 2007 Grand Prix. We were in the middle of the spy story – the day after the police came to the paddock and deliver some legal notices to Mr. Dennis and others – and some Ferrari but also football fans had taken the opportunity to write on their banner “McLaren like Juve.” When I saw him, I asked Callo Albanese, our photographer, to take a shoot of the banner: “If we win the championship I hang it in the office,” I said. Still had to take place the World Council that would recognize the guilt of McLaren and, above all, the situation in the Drivers’ championship was anything but positive. Everything presaged, including the outcome of this Grand Prix (Raikkonen third behind Alonso and Hamilton, Massa retired) that the photo would be left forgotten in a hard disk of Callo but the story of that incredible year went differently. So the late afternoon of next 21 October at Interlagos, in the delirium of the celebrations for the title of Kimi, I remembered to Callo that picture and a few days later, back in Maranello, I hung proudly in the office and is now in my house.

This episode leads me to make a reflection. If Formula 1 Ferrari and McLaren have managed to overcome a very serious event as the spy story why Inter and Juventus have failed to do the same? Between what happened then and betting scandal that characterized the Italian football ten year ago are so many points in common, but the two Formula 1 teams have been able to overcome that fracture – also thanks to the intelligence and sensitivity of those who led them in the following years, Stefano Domenicali Martin Whitmarsh – even managing to work together in what was the only real moment (spring/summer 2009) in which the sport could really change things, but that’s another story.

Ps: Alonso said “geniuses”, not really a nice thing but nothing too serious: maybe he even had reasons to say it but did not need to do it on the radio.