The popular legend that Enzo only cared about racing is false. Luca de Montezemolo confirmed that Enzo was a marketing genius who carefully crafted the Ferrari myth, comparing him to Steve Jobs as a non-engineer who deeply understood what enabled his vision. ✦ AI generated
David Rosenthal · Acquired · 2026-04-14 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 28:24
“And I asked Montealo, you know, you knew Enzo probably as deeply and as well as just about anybody who's still alive today. And there's this kind of popular legend that Enzo was just a racer.”
Luca confirmed when I asked him, Enzo was a natural-born entrepreneur and marketer. He really was Italy's Steve Jobs in every aspect. I mean, think about it. What was Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs was was not an engineer. He was a marketer. The same as Enzo. Enzo is not an engineer. He's not a car mechanic. He can't build the cars himself. But they both had a sort of understanding and deep appreciation for the technical things that enabled their visions to be possible. Yes. Enzo would say about himself when asked that, you know, he's not an engineer, he's not a car designer, he's no longer a driver, even though he runs this team, he is quote an agitator of men.
verbatim transcript · starts at 28:24
28:24narrative is based on. >> Yes. And I asked Montealo, you know, you knew Enzo probably as deeply and as well as just about anybody who's still alive today. And there's this kind of popular legend that Enzo was just a racer. He only wanted to race. He didn't really care about business or road cars. And all the road cars only existed to fund his racing activities. Oh, this is the
28:47biggest thing about people today. When I say, "Oh, we're doing an episode on Ferrari." They say, "Oh my gosh, yeah, it's such a crazy story cuz, you know, Enzo really just wanted to race cars and he built this car company, but really that was just sort of to finance the racing and he doesn't even care about those road cars. He's not really a business guy. He just wants to make
29:05great cars with great engines and and send them racing." >> Completely false. Monteze confirmed when I asked him, Enzo was a naturalb born entrepreneur and marketer. He he really was Italy's Steve Jobs in every aspect. I mean, think about it. What was Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs was was not an engineer. He was a marketer. The same as Enzo. Enzo is not an engineer. He's not a car mechanic. He
29:33can't build the cars himself. But they both had a sort of understanding and deep appreciation for the technical things that enabled their visions to be possible. >> Yes. Enzo would say about himself when asked that, you know, he's not an engineer, he's not a car designer, he's no longer a driver, even though he runs this team, he is quote an agitator of men. And that perfectly described Enzo
29:57and I think, you know, perfectly describes Steve Jobs, too. >> Yep. So if you think about it, what is Enzo doing here with the brand that he's building? There's the prancing horse and then what's the other famous, you know, visual symbol associated with Ferrari? The red Ferrari red Roso Corsa that he adopts here. And sure, you know, Ferraris are red because red was the assigned national racing color of Italy.
30:21But come on, Enzo is the one who embraced it and imbued this Rasa Corso with so much more than just the national racing color of Italy. It's not Alfa Romeo's colors. It's Ferrari's colors. >> Right. When you draw a picture of a race car today, let's say you're 10 years old, you're coloring it red. And you're coloring it red because that is Ferrari red. >> Yes. And what does red represent? It's