Ferrari’s first great victory at Le Mans 1949

The legend of the prancing horse starts from a great victory, that of the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1949, a victory due to the stubbornness of Luigi Chinetti who wanted to race on the Sarthe track at all costs with a red Maranello car.

Ferrari in those years was truly a small factory that was trying to reorganize itself after the wounds of the War. Luigi Chinetti and Enzo Ferrari had known each other for a long time, since Drake managed Alfa Romeos and Chinetti raced with Portello cars. The war takes them far away, Ferrari has abandoned the Milanese factory and has decided to attempt his great adventure. Luigi Chinetti remained in America at the beginning of the Second World War. With the revival of the economy he got into the car business and contacts resumed between the two old friends. Chinetti begins to import the new Italian cars, in America they sell well among the nouveau riche and it will soon be the fortune of both.

For Luigi Chinetti too, racing represents an important form of advertising, especially for sports cars like the red ones. He has already won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, in 1932 and 1934, the first time teamed with Raymond Sommer and the second with Philippe Etancelin again with the Alfa Romeo 8C, and proposes an expedition to Ferrari to conquer the marathon again most important in the world with a red car from Maranello that wants to start again in 1949.

To participate in Le Mans you need two cars, eight mechanics and two drivers to join him and Richard Dreyfus. But in Maranello the resources are few, the idea is very beautiful, the Ferrari technicians would be enthusiastic, but Ferrari has no money and is unable to satisfy the requests of the driver and entrepreneur who now considers himself an Italian-American. Chinetti from the new continent has already absorbed the typical pragmatism and doesn’t give up, he finds a financier, the rich Lord Selsdon, buys two Ferrari 166s and from Ferrari he gets two mechanics and two technicians in exchange.

The crew is decidedly unbalanced, Chinetti and Selsdon have a decidedly different pace, but the important thing is to start, then we will see during the race and so after 24 hours that strange crew passes first under the checkered flag of the first 24 Post-war Le Mans hours. Luigi Chinetti remained behind the wheel of the red car for over 20 hours, leaving the cockpit to the aristocratic co-driver only for a short time, just to relax and to enter the financier’s name in the roll of honor of the French marathon.

It is the first true international success of a Ferrari, it will also be the first success of a twelve-cylinder at Le Mans. The great international history of Ferrari starts precisely from this victory in a race in which Ferrari himself did not want to participate. Since then a feeling began between the reds and the Sarthe marathon which led to the success being written into the Le Mans roll of honor nine times. The other victories were achieved in 1954, 1958 and continuously from 1960 to 1965 and Ferrari is currently third in terms of number of successes after Porsche’s 16 and Audi’s 12, despite having been absent from the top category since 1973.

Tags: Ferrari, Le Mans, Luigi Chinetti

About the Author

Massimo Campi Mechanical expert, photographer, journalist, in the world of motorsport for over 40 years. Collaborations with various newspapers and journalistic sites in the sector.