Watt-link live axle
On the 250 GTO, after Bizzarrini left, Forghieri added a Watt link to the live rear axle. He kept the pair of semi-elliptic leaf springs because they were written into the FIA homologation papers.
People
Mauro Forghieri
Ferrari racing engineer and technical director
- Born
- Modena, Italy, 1935
- Died
- Modena, Italy, 2022
- Nationality
- Italian
Original: Carlom1961 / Derivative work: Danyele, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The record
Ferrari engineer who, after the 1961 walkout, took charge of racing and research and became Scuderia Ferrari’s technical manager. The register credits him as development engineer on the 250 GTO and technical director on the 250 LM. His cars later took four Formula One drivers’ titles and seven constructors’ championships.
Born in Modena on 13 January 1935 to Reclus Forghieri, a Ferrari machinist, and Afra Gori, he graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Bologna in 1959 after a 1957 internship at Ferrari. He hoped to work on gas turbines in the United States. Enzo Ferrari brought him into the engine department in 1960, under Carlo Chiti.
Forghieri joined Ferrari as an engineer and, after the 1961 departures from the racing department, Enzo Ferrari put him in charge of racing and research. Forghieri later dated that charge to 31 October 1961; Ferrari described his 1962 appointment as Scuderia Ferrari’s technical manager. He was twenty-six, and his first Grand Prix as a Ferrari engineer was Monaco 1962, the debut of Maranello’s rear-engined Dino 246.
His first task after Giotto Bizzarrini left was the 250 GTO’s rear: a Watt link on the live axle, the homologated leaf springs retained. Ferrari later said he redesigned the rear and raised the power. As technical director he led the mid-engined 250 LM, the berlinetta of the 250 P; a NART car won Le Mans in 1965. His work covered single-seaters, sports cars and prototypes.
His 158, Ferrari’s first aluminium monocoque, took John Surtees to the 1964 titles. In 1968 he put a rear wing on the 312 at Spa. The 312T of 1975 used a transverse gearbox ahead of the rear axle; Lauda won in 1975 and 1977, Scheckter in 1979. He oversaw the first turbocharged Ferrari grand-prix engine in the 126 C, and left the technical-director post in 1984.
From January 1985 he ran Ferrari’s advanced-research office and finished the four-wheel-drive 408 4RM in 1987, then left. At Lamborghini Engineering he designed a naturally aspirated Formula One V12. He was technical director at Bugatti Automobili on the EB 110 and on 1 January 1995 co-founded Oral Engineering in Modena. He died in Modena on 2 November 2022.
Mid-engine GT berlinetta
The 250 LM was the closed version of the 250 P he led as technical director: mid-mounted V12, tubular chassis, independent suspension, meant for GT homologation. When the FIA refused, NART still won Le Mans with one in 1965.
Transverse gearbox
On the 312T he put a transverse gearbox ahead of the rear axle to pack the mass inward. Lauda later called the car a monument to Forghieri’s skill. The same weight-distribution idea ran through the flat-12 cars that won from 1975 to 1979.
The stations
- 1957FerrariEngineering intern
- 1960–1961FerrariEngineer, engine department
- 1961–1984Scuderia FerrariTechnical director
- 1985–1987FerrariDirector of advanced research
- 1987–1991Lamborghini EngineeringTechnical director
- 1992–1994Bugatti AutomobiliTechnical director
- 1995–2022Oral Engineering GroupCo-founder
The house
Credited through Ferrari.
In the register
2 files carry this name
The files above are the register's own record of this name. The people index holds everyone the register credits.
In their words
“My life in Formula One began at an historic moment in the history of the sport.”
Mauro Forghieri · FIA AUTO, 2019