Enzo Ferrari’s secretary, confidant, motor sport director and press officer Franco Gozzi died in Modena on April 23. He was 80 years-old. The son of a shoemaker, Gozzi graduated in law but for over 30 years was Ferrari’s press officer and confidant.
He joined Maranello in 1960, when he became Enzo Ferrari’s secretary, and later took over the press office, speaking to journalists on the Commendatore’s behalf. Gozzi ghosted Enzo Ferrari’s book, Le Mie Gioie Terribile (My Terrible Joys).
In 1968, Gozzi was appointed Ferrari’s motor sport director, a position he retained until 1970.
Of that period in his career Gozzi said, “As soon as a race was over and I had to collect the prize and start money, race off to Maranello with it and hand it over to Enzo Ferrari so that he could pay his shop floor workers. He regarded it as a point of honor to always pay his employees on time.”
Gozzi retired from Ferrari in 1993, but returned to the company in 1997 as a consultant and curator of the company’s documentation center. He published his autobiography, Memoirs of Enzo Ferrari’s Lieutenant, in 2002.
