Grand Prix Drivers

Luigi Villoresi photographed at the 1954 TT at Dundrod in Ireland. Graham Gauld photo.

By Graham Gauld

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It was whilst in England for the 1949 British Grand Prix on May 14 that Luigi Villoresi received a surprise. “I had a message from Enzo Ferrari to say he had sent a single seater 166C Ferrari to Brussels for me to race in the Brussels Grand Prix, and a new 166MM sports car( 0016M) to Luxembourg to race in a sports car race the following weekend.”

Luigi continued. “I won both races and when I got back to Milan I had a telephone call from a journalist friend called Corrado Fillipini telling me that Enzo Ferrari wanted me to drive for him; so why didn’t I go and see him and sign for Ferrari?”

This provided a dilemma for Villoresi, as he had disliked Enzo Ferrari since the day of the accident that killed his brother Emilio at Monza, back in 1939.

Lunch at the Ristorante Lauro in Modena in 1997 just a few months before Luigi Villoresi died at the age of 88. He is seated with Don Sergio Mantovani the former priest to Maserati who ran the hospice at his church, Santa Catherina in Modena. Graham Gauld photo.

By Graham Gauld

I had first met Villoresi years before and once he became rather frail and had moved into the hospice, I wanted to sit down with him and talk about his life. He surprisingly arrived at a Ferrari event in Italy where I think Schumacher presented him with a trophy, and had been brought by Lauro Malavolti, who owned Lauro’s restaurant in Modena and was another pal of mine. I said to Lauro I would like to talk to him and so he asked me if I could wait a few months and then come down to Modena, and he would arrange a lunch with Villoresi.