Enzo Ferrari was not merely a racer who accidentally built a car company — he was a natural-born entrepreneur and marketer, Italy's Steve Jobs, who deliberately crafted every element of the Ferrari myth from the prancing horse logo to the sunglasses persona.
Despite the popular legend that Enzo 'just wanted to race' and only sold road cars to fund racing, former Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo confirmed that Enzo was a deliberate business genius. He strategically adopted the prancing horse from a national war hero, embraced Ferrari Red as a symbol of passion, wore sunglasses only when cultivating his image, and leveraged Italian national identity to build the brand — all while calling himself 'an agitator of men' rather than an engineer. ✦ AI generated
Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal · Acquired · 2026-04-14 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 28:14
I asked Montezemolo, 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 biggest thing about people today... Completely false. Montezemolo 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 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... 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 and I think, you know, perfectly describes Steve Jobs, too... It was an act. You know, he would wear the sunglasses in public and it, you know, press interviews and in meetings with clients or whomever and then everybody else would leave the room and he'd just take them off and put them on the table. He didn't wear sunglasses all the time, only when crafting his image.
verbatim transcript · starts at 28:14
27:57establish this team, this company and its future cars as the Italian national team and sports car company. >> Yep. >> So in our research, I spoke to Luca Deonteo, the legendary Ferrari chairman who would ultimately succeed Enzo and really in many ways be his heir as we will tell in this story. Important to note, different Luca than the Luca who wrote the book, David, that most of this
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
30:44passion. It's blood. It's desire. It's all of this that is all deeply wrapped up into a Ferrari. I mean, just look at Italy's other luxury supercar company today, Lamborghini. You know what their colors are? Not red. In fact, their color is every color but red because Ferrari has co-opted it. >> Yeah. >> So, back to the scooter here. After a couple years, in 1933, the golden opportunity arrives for Enzo. Alfa Romeo
- ·'Just wanted to race' legend is 'completely false'
- ·Confirmed by former chairman Montezemolo
- ·'Italy's Steve Jobs' — marketer, not engineer
- ·Described himself as 'an agitator of men'
- ·Adopted prancing horse from national war hero
- ·Embraced Ferrari Red as passion symbol
- ·Leveraged Italian national identity for brand equity
- ·Every element of the Ferrari myth was crafted
- ·Sunglasses worn only when crafting public image
- ·Removed them once people left the room
- ·Pure image curation, not personal style
- ·Performance of mystique — deliberate and calculated