Three Generations Later, Meet Enzo Ferrari

Yahoo

11-03-2025

Enzo Ferrari strides through the crowd in a scarlet blazer and jet-black sunglasses. Between a 335 S and a Ghia-bodied 375 MM, we shake hands, standing in one of the few spots in this slice of Palm Beach that is unoccupied by a classic Ferrari. Before the cameras roll, he steps aside. Something must go.
"That is Enzo," he says, swapping his dark shades for thick-rimmed eyeglasses.
Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari, that is, who famously wore sunglasses in countless photographs and interviews during his later years. His grandson, Enzo Mattioli Ferrari, was born six months before the Ferrari founder died in 1988. Not with the passage of 37 years, four generations of supercars after the F40, Michael Schumacher's F1 run, Ferrari going public, a Dubai theme park, an SUV, and an upcoming EV has the shadow of Enzo, Sr., ever faded. The company's pulse, and the family blood that still runs it, beats from one heart—the man from Modena in the dark ties, crisp suits, and black sunglasses.
"My mom decided to call me Enzo after him. [The family] were all expecting something emotional, a big moment, and they answered, 'That's a good choice, short name, easy to remember,'" he says at the Cavallino Classic, a series of all-Ferrari car shows that started in Florida 32 years ago. "Just to give you the sense that we treat it normally."
Bearded and well-tailored, Enzo is a classically good-looking Italian man from a place that just happens to build the most exciting sports cars on Earth, where he says "No one treats me differently." Yet this man from Modena—along with his younger brother Piero Galassi Ferrari and their mother Antonella—stands to control a portion of a nearly $10 billion fortune from his grandfather Piero, who, since 1969 and after Ferrari's 2015 IPO, owns a 10-percent stake in the automaker. With his grandfather's position on Ferrari's board and product development committee, Enzo stands in a circle of influence on the super-luxury car market and bears a name of royalty that hardly exists anymore in modern industry, let alone Italy. Ferruccio Lamborghini's son and grandchildren play with hotels and wine. The Maserati brothers sold their shares in the 1930s. Alfa Romeo has become a glorified subsidiary of Jeep. The Ferraris still have a say at Ferrari.
"It's always been part of my family,' Ferrari said. 'I went for the first time in 1993 in Imola to a Formula 1 race and I remember everyone was so nice to me, but it was something normal. I remember the 50th anniversary of Ferrari when my grandfather took me in the 125 S, the first Ferrari ever that left the gate at Maranello at the time and Caracalla in Rome. It's always been part of myself. I've always loved cars—Ferrari of course, but I'm a car enthusiast."
Enzo rarely appears in the press. By all accounts, this is his first formal interview with an American publication. He is better known as a pen stroke on a 2022 SEC filing, in which Ferrari named him as trustee for the Piero Ferrari Trust, than a playboy. At home, he daily drives a Defender and rallies a Delta. In between family business—he also runs Ferrari Family Investments, which finances auto and tech companies in the Emilia-Romagna region— Enzo runs a restoration shop outside Modena and, since November, became president of Cavallino, which publishes a glossy magazine and runs the Cavallino Classic.
"We want to be the guardians of the brand," he says next to Luigi Orlandini, a family friend and CEO of Canossa, Cavallino's parent company. "It's not just the event. It's the allure of what it's able to create."
Enzo's name did not instantly grant him full access to the kingdom. Enzo was a marketer at Philip Morris for five years before working for Ferrari in product development, when the team was about to debut the Monza.
"The idea—and I remember perfectly it was Sergio Marchionne's idea—is that he saw a 750 Monza in the Ferrari Classiche department and said, 'Why don't we do a barchetta?' It sounded like 'Well yeah, sure,' and then we did a barchetta," he says. "He really loved the brand, he really understood the company values, and it was great to work with him. Sometimes he was the toughest boss you could possibly have."
Enzo's family, as they watched him prove himself by earning an MBA and managing the family's private equity firm, had their own rules. Piero and his father, Giacomo Mattioli, did not want him racing.
"I always dreamt of becoming a professional driver and then my grandfather and my father said 'On which budget?' So, that was gone. That was a smart decision from them."
The perks, though, are pretty good. Enzo's first time piloting a Ferrari was at Fiorano in his mother's 328, where he learned to drive stick. He toured the Ferrari Tribute to Mille Miglia in a 599 GTO and does a few small races each year, mostly in his Lancia Beta. And while he does not yet sit on Ferrari's board, Enzo has a direct line to the big boss.
"If you look at legacy OEMs right now, how much money they invested in electric vehicles and their market cap, this seems like big trouble," he says. "The automotive business is transforming itself and it's not easy to navigate at times, but for sure it's not the time to make bold decisions. At Ferrari we are lucky to navigate the technology and to have all the different engines. We have the V-8 hybrid, the V-12, and we have announced that are we going to launch the EV. That gives us the possibility of approaching the future with different degrees of mentality."
One part of that future, the bond between Ferrari the man and Ferrari the company, is certain. The two will not separate.
"As a family, we are deeply involved. It is our home. It is our house and we never want to sell it."
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