He Miami Grand Prix of Formula 1 will take place from May 3 to 5. and in it Ferrari will celebrate with a design derived from the anger of its founder, Enzo Ferrari.
USA It is the largest market for the Italian automaker, which celebrates 70 years in that country. And on this sixth date of the World Championship the Scuderia will present a different design, both in its cars and in the divers of its drivers, Charles Leclerc y Carlos Sainz (h.). With a very different color from its traditional rojo: he azul. Which, on the other hand, is not new for the brand.
“Trying on clothes early for that #MiamiGP”
Nor will it be the first time that Ferrari will alter its design to celebrate something or show solidarity in the face of a sad event. In 2001For example, he painted the noses black of their cars to express their mourning for the 9/11 terrorist attacks suffered by the United States, the nation that consumes the most its products. In 2005 He did something similar, but just with the tips of his trunks, almost as if the cars were wearing black crepes, to express his regret for the death of John Paul II, the pope who had had a couple of meetings with representatives of the team (in 1988 at the Fiorano factory and track, and in 2005 in the Vatican). In 2020 their cars showed a color burgundy in reference to grand prize number 1000 that the team achieved, in Mugello, one of its main racetracks. And in the Italian GP of 2023 there was a change in divers of the pilots, who were yellowin celebration of the recent triumph of the 499P model in the traditional endurance race 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Well now the cars will appear blue. I don’t know if you know if it’s almost entirely or just with some stripes or sectors of the bodywork, since the novelty will be presented next week, a few days before the Miami race. What is certain is that blue will appear there. And in two variants: sky blue At paymentun tono very clearthe one that identified Argentina in motorsports, and sky blue Dinoone more dark. Both have been used in Ferrari’s history, both in other categories and in employee clothing. But Enzo Ferrari’s anger led them to the bodies of their Formula 1 cars in 1964.
The Scuderia had always worn red, the color that referred to Italy in the races of cars. But Commander He promised not to use it anymore after getting angry with the Italian motorsport federationto the point that a curious situation arose: one of its drivers was crowned world champion in blue. Azul La Plata, specifically.
“You are Charles and Carlos looking at their divers for #MiamiGP for the first time”
It happens that in the sixties the International Automobile Federation (FIA) required, to participate in certain competitions, to have produced a minimum number of units of the model in question, and refused to homologate the 250 LM that Ferrari planned to present in a competition. endurance. As The Italian federation did not support a claim by its iconic member, Don Enzo became angry and threatened to never use the red that identified his country again. And he fulfilled the two remaining dates of the 1964 World Cup.
Her jewelry (models 158 and 1512) were white above and blue below in it United States Grand Prix and in the Mexican GP. With the shield of prancing Horse black on a yellow background, yes. And something less visible but as disruptive as that happened. More disruptive, actually: the structure It was not presented under the name of Scuderia Ferrari, but with that of North American Racing Team (NART), a team that competed on the new continent. That’s how furious Don Enzo was with the leadership.
NART participated in other categories, but with machines produced by Ferrari. They used to be blue, and when they were red, they had some stripes and the rims in La Plata blue. In those final two Formula 1 dates, that “non-Ferrari” team was under the direction of Luigi Chinetti, representative of the Italian brand in the United States. How did he do? He didn’t win, but the overall result was great.
En Watkins Glen John Surtees came second, behind Graham Hillwhich went on to lead him by 5 points in the contest (39 against 34), and Lorenzo Bandini deserted But in the Mexican capital things changed. The Italian Bandini, with the model 1512, completed the podium, and his English companion, dressed in La Plata blue, was the first escort of And Gurney (Brabham) and as Hill abandoned with his BRM, Surtees was crowned champion. The first, and only one so far, to achieve the same achievement in motorcycling and in Formula 1. And protagonist of the very rare fact of being consecrated by Ferrari in a team not called “Ferrari” and without the classic red color.
Ferrari history in blue
It is true that the Italian Alberto Ascari, F. 1 champion in 1952 and 1953 for the Maranello squad, wore La Plata blue diver and helmet, the same tone as mechanics’ clothing in the first decades of the category. He was also used by the New Zealander Chris Amonand he did it himself Niki Lauda when the Austrian starred in his first season with the team, in 1974. The Dino blue appears in a more recent photo of workers with Don Enzo and involved two icons of the brand, the Italian Arturo Merzario y Clay Regazzoni. The Swiss was the last to wear it, in 1974. From then on, the divers were red, except for that yellow exception a few months ago in Monza. On cars, vermilion, the quintessential Ferrari hue, returned soon after the conflict, at the opening of 1965, when things had returned to normal.
Next week, on the occasion of the Miami GP, two blue Ferrari 296 GTS will spin in the typical pre-race car parade, a display and enjoyment ride. In line with what Flavio Manzoni, the team’s design chief, says in the video announcing the color change for this date: “Red is not a single color for Ferrari. There is also blue, Enzo Ferrari’s traditional color. He liked it a lot because it was a very relaxing color.”. Ideal to calm the fury generated by that “no” from the FIA and the federation of his country almost six decades ago.