Meet Enzo's British secretary

I went to Italy on holiday in the early 1960s and met an English girl who was married to an Italian, the manager of the Palace Hotel in Modena. She suggested I should stay on in Italy to which I replied, ‘You must be nuts,’ but that’s what happened – I stayed!

In 1962 I took a job as English teacher at a private school. At that time, Englishman Mike Parkes, Ferrari’s chief development engineer and works driver, was looking for a secretary. I taught at the school during the day and worked for Mike in the evenings. I worked for him for 16 years. Mike lived in the same house in Modena as Lina Lardi and her son Piero Lardi Ferrari, and that’s where I first met the ‘old man’. In fact, Piero was an English student of mine at the time – he was then 16; today he’s my boss! Ferrari said that if Mike ever left he’d like me to work for him. The implication was that he didn’t want us to work for him at the same time as we’d only end up fighting! Mike didn’t exactly leave – he died in a road accident; about two months later, in July ’78, Ferrari ’phoned me to ask me to work for him, mainly to do his translations. That’s how it happened.

English and Italian lifestyles are traditionally different. The mere fact that you are still there after 30 years must mean you’ve adapted well. One reason I’ve adapted so well is that – like the Italians – I’m quite extrovert. I say it like it is... I’m forthright and cannot stand liars and two-faced people. My philosophy is that if people don’t like the truth it’s just too bad. Several of our drivers learnt that about me. But I’m also a lot like my father, who was Irish, and one of the dearest people I’ve ever known. He’d give anything away just to make other people happy. I’m like that too. I enjoy giving. I like the Italian lifestyle... I know so many people in Maranello; there’s always someone to turn to...

Read the full article and interview in Motor Sport’s 70th anniversary special ‘Ferrari – From Race to Road’