How an Employee Uprising Almost Killed Ferrari – the Great Ferrari Walkout

This most likely led to Ferrari's success not only on the rack but also on the road. However, it also had some pretty dire consequences—one of the most significant ones was the birth of Lamborghini. Another one was Scuderia Ferrari losing to Ford at Le Mans for four consecutive years.

In the early 1960s, Enzo had amassed a variety of arch-rivals. However, the biggest problem happened internally, between Enzo and his employees. Why? Some say it was some old-school mutiny among the company's best engineers. It most likely involved some classic Italian swear words, but swearing happens anyway.

The people didn't like Enzo's attitude, which conveyed something like, "If you don’t like what you’re doing or don’t like it here, no one is keeping you from leaving. Do it your own way, but not here." This attitude was both a blessing and a curse – it enabled Enzo to achieve what he did, but it almost cost him his business.

This led Ferruccio Lamborghini to start a competing sports car company that grew into the huge brand we know it to be today. Il Commendatore's stubbornness almost cost him his company; you'd think he'd learn from the occasion. He didn't, as there were multiple instances where Ferrari almost came crumbling down.

However, one scandal tops them all: The Great Ferrari Walkout, as it's commonly known. This event almost drove the company to the ground, not only due to its gravity but also because of its timing, as you'll soon learn.

It all started because of a woman. Sort of.
Long story short, every single opponent of Enzo's ways was either laid off or left on their own accord, all in a matter of days. Basically, Ferrari was left without some of its most successful designers and engineers.

Tensions had already been rising in the company for several years. However, things erupted in 1961. Interestingly, some of the internal conflicts also revolved around Laura Dominica Garello, Enzo's wife.

According to most accounts, Laura became increasingly involved in company affairs in the years preceding the walkout. There's a sad reason behind this – let me explain.

Enzo and Laura had a son, Dino Ferrari, who died in 1956. Naturally, his death was a huge blow to both parents, but especially to Enzo—so much so that he started to isolate himself from the factory and the Scuderia.

As Enzo started locking himself up more and more in his office at Modena, Laura started patrolling the factory's premises and became increasingly involved in the general management of the Scuderia.

She wasn't soft and understanding with the employees. In fact, he was more like Enzo himself: a tyrannical figure. This behavior was probably caused by Dino's death and fueled by the fact that Enzo allegedly had a love affair with another woman.

Girolamo Gardini, one of Ferrari's Sales Managers, was Laura's most picked on target. This meant suffering a lot of verbal violence. Understandably, Gardini was fed up with these never-ending discussions.

This led to heated discussions with Enzo about this predicament. Eventually, he threatened Enzo with leaving the company if Laura wasn't removed from the Ferrari equation.

Il Commendatore responded how you'd expect him to. Not only did he refuse, but he also promptly laid off Gardini. To be clear, Gardini wasn't an immovable pillar in the company's upcoming plans. However, credit should be given where credit is due – he was one of the key people responsible for Ferrari's success.

Naturally, Gardini wasn't the only one opposing Laura's involvement in Ferrari's operation. Several other critical employees felt the same. Sports car development chief Giotto Bizzarrini, chief engineer Carlo Chiti, Scuderia Ferrari manager Romolo Tavoni, and five other key people backed Gardini.

This is known because they sent a group-signed letter to complain about Laura's meddling with the Scuderia after getting help from a lawyer. This situation was remarkable—no one had dared oppose Enzo like that before. What's more, Enzo did not expect Gardini's dismissal to have such repercussions.

This is when things become a little blurry, as in it's not clear what happened next. Some people say Enzo simply fired the mentioned employees, while others say they all left in October 1961.

Anyway, the exact specifics are not that important. What's critical is the result. Ferrari was left without some of its best executives, and upcoming sports car projects were left hanging. Now, about that timing I mentioned earlier...

Inauspicious Timing
What made the walkout even worse was the timing. Ferrari's motorsport division was having a hard time coping with an increasing number of track-related tragedies. So much so that a magazine from the time had even written that the factory was nothing because "it was built on dead men."

In 1957, Ferrari Grand Prix driver Eugenio Castellotti had been killed in an accident on the now-defunct Modena Autodromo circuit, while Fon de Portago had crashed and died not even a month later in the last and probably bloodiest Mille Miglia race. He also took several spectators with him in the crash.

The company's bad luck continued in 1958 when Luigi Musso was killed at the French Grand Prix in Reims. Peter Colling also died on the track we now know as the "Green Hell," officially named the Nürburgring, all in the span of just a couple of weeks. Between the late 1950s and up until the end of the 1960s, Enzo Ferrari lost as many as seven drivers.

The Vatican newspaper compared Enzo to the Italian god Saturn, who devoured his sons to be able to keep his position as a mighty god unchallenged. To be fair, those were the times – unfortunately, dying wasn't a rare occurrence for drivers in that era. However, Ferrari's death toll was so high that it couldn't go unnoticed.

There was some good news, although it was overshadowed by all that was going on – the Scuderia secured both the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers and the World Championship of Drivers in 1961. Ferrari had to thank Phil Hill for the feat and itself for designing the distinctive Ferrari 156 F1 "Sharknose." Unfortunately, Wolfgang von Trips' death at Monza cat even more shadow on the triumph - the tragic crash took the lives of fifteen spectators.

The Italian law didn't help at all. Every fatal accident in a race event that happened on Italian ground had to be treated as a murder case. These trials weakened Il Comendatore and his company.

It was the perfect storm: pilot and spectator deaths kept piling up, a former employee founded a competing company, employees were walking out or laid off, and Ferrari got a hard spanking by Ford at Le Mans over several years. The worst of the factors was the walkout—it wasn't just a PR blow but rather a loss of talent from Maranello's rather small family of employees.

To make things worse, almost immediately after leaving the Scuderia, Giotto Bizzarrini, Carlo Chiti, and Romolo Tavoni teamed up to form ATS (Automobili Turismo e Sport). It didn't take long for the company to grow into Ferrari's arch-enemy on the track and road—this was possible due to extensive funding from Count Giovanni Volpi.

Fortunately, Ferrari isn't just some long-forgotten name in motorsports. The company persevered, and Il Commendatore's dream of racing lived on. In fact, these events empowered him to bounce back and become even more successful.

Enzo hired Mauro Forghieri, Sergio Scaglietti, and a couple of other talented individuals, who eventually got the company back on track. Scaglietti finished the 250 GTO and went on to design superb Ferraris for years to come.

Forghieri took the technical director role and was essential in developing the 312 series, which became successful in the GT- and prototype-endurance racing. During his active years at Ferrari, Forghieri took eight constructors' titles.

These unfortunate times have undoubtedly helped strengthen Ferrari and shape it into the brand it is today. In fact, we must thank almost all of Enzo's enemies since they are indirectly responsible for the Prancing Horse's evolution.