New photo book highlights lived experience inside Ferrari F1 team

Motorsport Images, the world’s largest collection of motorsport and automotive images, has today launched a new book featuring many of the great names from Ferrari’s history.

Ferrari: From Inside and Outside represents the first time that two legendary Formula One photographers, Rainer Schlegelmilch and Ercole Colombo, have collaborated. The book also features chapters by Piero Ferrari and important F1 team leaders from Ferrari’s history, including Luca di Montezemolo, Jean Todt, Mauro Forghieri, and Stefano Domenicali, who is now CEO of Formula 1. There is also a chapter by celebrated Italian journalist and Ferrari observer Leo Turrini on Ferrari’s most successful period in the 2000s.

Stefan Johansson, Ferrari

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

The book provides a fresh take on the difference between the lived experience inside Ferrari and the perception from outside, combining intense scrutiny and global fan adulation. It also explores the myth of Enzo Ferrari, whose personality and vision created a brand that has brought joy to tens of millions of fans around the world.

The Ferrari legend is stunningly illustrated in the pages of this book by master photographers Schlegelmilch and Colombo, whose careers began in the 1960s and ran through to the 2010s. The book has been produced by Motorsport Images, part of Motorsport Network, in collaboration with ACC Art Books, Rizzoli Lizard, and Iconic Images.

Rainer Schelgelmilch is the photographers’ photographer; an artist with an inquisitive mind, who captured expressions on drivers’ faces like no other photographer and an innovator who pioneered techniques for capturing the speed and colour of F1. Inspired by reportage photography made popular in the 20^th century by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and the Magnum photographers, Schlegelmilch made a career in F1 looking in from the outside.

John Surtees, Ferrari 158, Richie Ginther, BRM P261

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

Ercole Colombo is the ultimate insider. A man whose skills as a networker rival his skills with a camera, Ercole quickly won the confidence of Enzo Ferrari and became his photographer. He was on the inside to capture many intimate moments with the Commendatore and with iconic Ferrari drivers like Gilles Villeneuve, Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher.

The book is edited by James Allen, who wrote two books with Michael Schumacher, including the 2007 biography “The Edge of Greatness.” He also co-wrote Nigel Mansell’s 1995 autobiography “The People’s Champion.”

Extract from Piero Ferrari, son of Enzo Ferrari: “I had the opportunity to meet Ercole Colombo many times, not only in Formula One, but at other events connected to Ferrari. He was always there. Ercole is a great photographer and has always done a fantastic job. His images and his archive will go down as part of the history of motor racing. Rainer Schlegelmilch is also a great professional. I especially love the old pictures in black and white because, when I was younger, I used to shoot pictures in the Autodromo in Modena. Black-and-white images give you an artistic feeling. I love black-and-white pictures.”

Michele Alboreto, Ferrari

Photo by: Ercole Colombo

Luca di Montezemolo, former Chairman of Ferrari, said: “Ercole and Rainer spent a long time in Formula One. I like them both from the professional and the human point of view. And on the professional side, I think that in the history of modern Formula One, they have an important role and an important position.”

Extract from Jean Todt, Ferrari’s most successful team principal, “When we speak about the difference in perceptions between Ferrari from the inside and Ferrari from the outside, my experience developed over the years. But when I arrived, people had no faith in me because I was French; I had no experience in F1, so they thought, ‘Okay, he’s coming for one or two years, to make some money and leave.’ But then, over the years, they realized that I was focused because I was in the factory day and night with the team, and I was really putting in all the effort.

“There was pressure to fire me but when Michael was hired in 1996, although I did not know him very well, he realised that I was doing the job properly, and that things were going to come good. Around June, when there was speculation that I would be fired, Michael said, ‘If Jean leaves, I will leave as well.’ And, of course, that shocked everyone, so they said, ‘Okay, we are not going to fire him.’

Stefano Domenicali, Former Ferrari F1 team principal, now CEO of Formula 1, said: “Every time there is an occasion to celebrate at the factory or a moment to share, it is experienced not only with the racing team, but also with the other side of the company on the GT side, because Ferrari is all one company, and it is very important to share these kinds of things. Everyone feels that, under the F1 brand, they are seen as a team that is recognized worldwide. The company takes that responsibility seriously – of being seen as a model for Italian industry all around the world.

Gilles Villeneuve, Ferrari 312T5

Photo by: Ercole Colombo

“Pretty much everything I learned from my time at Ferrari has informed the way that I operate today as F1 CEO. It was very important for me, and I’m very appreciative of the people at Ferrari who inspired me during that period of my growth.”

To find out more and to buy Ferrari: From Inside and Outside, go to https://www.dukevideo.com/prdACC2105/Ferrari-From-Inside-and-Outside-HB