Forza Ferrari, How F1’s Most Famous Team Can Win Again
by Nate Saunders
“Any athlete in the world will tell you that no amount of legendary status will bring you track victories; only hard work, talent and ability do that. Ferrari have certainly accomplished that in their time.”
Well, luck would have to be on that list too, but that’s the one factor you really have no control over. This book is about those other factors. Unless you are utterly prejudiced, Saunders will make a successful case for Ferrari not just being different but, well, more.
First impressions do matter. Applied to a book, that begins with the cover and everything on it. Title, subtitle, graphics—nothing problematic. That Luca di Montezemolo wrote the Foreword will have weight for anyone who recognizes the name as that of former chairman of Ferrari and the man who put the Schumacher-era dream team in place. But then there’s that quote by polarizing opinionator Guenther Steiner: “You won’t be able to put it down.” You can’t put down what you never picked up—and his name alone is certain to sour anyone on the topic whose motorsports interests and knowledge go deeper than the “Drive to Survive” pablum that is big on sound bites and not much else. The fact that the Steiner quote does not appear on the cover used in any of the pre-publication press material can only mean this was a last-minute marketing decision.
So, don’t judge a book by its cover: this will reveal itself as a thoughtful book, once the author’s own voice and thought come into play, freed of the baggage of marketing gimmickry such as the back cover teaser “When will Ferrari win another Championship?” That is not what the book is about.
What it is about is la forza and also lo sforzo—what is it that makes Ferrari strong, and what is the effort required. Also, why are people willing to make that effort. The overarching premise here is that the Ferrari team has qualities, a history, a dynamic no other has. Casual F1 observers will probably be surprised that friend and foe alike affirm that premise forcefully, representing a reality entirely untouched by the manufactured animosity of “reality” TV.
The book didn’t come to market until the 2025 season was already about a third done but the manuscript had surely been written before the season had started, meaning the word “can” in the subtitle is more presumptive than prescriptive inasmuch as it assumes that Ferrari is in a strong place for 2025, having finished the 2024 Constructors’ Championship in a promising second (652 points v. McLaren’s 666) and that new hire, 7-time Driver’s Champion Lewis Hamilton, will come to grips quickly enough with the setup of a car that requires a driving style entirely different from what his muscles and brain have become conditioned to after more than a decade with Mercedes.
It is odd, then, to be reading this book at a point in the season when it is already implausible that Ferrari has a shot at either title in 2025 but we need to remind ourselves once more that this isn’t Saunders’ point of reference in the first place. What he seeks to express in words is why Ferrari matters whether they win or not. Since this is all about work ethos he begins with Enzo Ferrari’s early days, cutting his teeth at Alfa Romeo and finding his calling.
There is a reason Enzo was described as “the most influential and most important Italian behind the Pope” but unlike a Pope, Enzo was a draconian, ruthless taskmaster who bent the world to his will. Saunders touches on enough talking points to paint a picture (there exist several good in-depth bios that take this much further) that lets the reader appreciate that, for better or worse, Enzo’s tunnel vision put and kept the Scuderia on a specific trajectory.
This is a smallish book so it necessarily moves matters along briskly (and is only sparingly illustrated hence no photos worth including here) but everything you need to know—people, politics, technology—is here. Consider: if you think you already know that story, and that all that Ferrari myth is just so much hoopla anyway, answer this: what happened in 1981? Sure, the Concorde Agreement, against the backdrop of the FISA v FOCA war. But what two items specifically were enshrined then that marked Ferrari out as different? If F1 is “a belligerent sport” (it is), why did competitors and administrators who squabble over everything and don’t give an inch make such concessions? There must be something tangible to that Ferrari myth.
It seems pertinent to point out that Saunders is a Brit because Europeans do have a more organic not to mention longer-standing relationship with Grand Prix motorsports and thus a different frame of reference. It also seems useful to be exact about his current job title, “Lead contributor for ESPN.com’s written content” as well a regular on that channel’s SportsCenter, because those media forms imply a specific way of thinking/expression. (He is also a podcaster, but who isn’t these days?)
Copyright 2025, Sabu Advani (Speedreaders.info
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