He himself had gatecrashed some Ferrari lunches, where driver Clemente Biondetti, a four-time Mille Miglia winner, had become his hero. He revealed that his father had been only slightly interested in racing, as the Mille Miglia had actually passed by their front door. Mauro, who shared his grandfather’s and father’s penchant for passionate self-expression, was raised there, then educated at Bologna University, where he graduated in 1959 with a doctorate in mechanical engineering. READ MORE: Under the bodywork of the Ferrari 312B3 Separated by the war, the Forghieri family was reunited when hostilities ceased, and after working for a while on classic cars while living between Nice and Monaco on the French Riviera, Reclus returned to Modena and went to work as a toolmaker at Ferrari, where he remained until 1973.

He later worked directly for Alfa, and Mauro went to school in Milan. His father, Reclus, trained at the Fermo Corni Technical Industrial Institute, and worked with Enzo Ferrari in 1937 and ’38 in Milan during the conception of the Alfa Romeo 158 (which went on to claim the first two official Drivers’ World Championships in 1950 and ’51). His grandfather Anselmo was a passionate and committed socialist who was a friend of Mussolini and Sandro Pertini, the socialist politician who went on to become the president of Italy from 1978 to 1985. Mauro Forghieri, who has died at 87, found himself thrust into the F1 limelight in 1962 at the tender age of 26.

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