Ferrari bids farewell to successful former engineer

Mauro Forghieri has died at the age of 87. The Italian was technical director of Ferrari for many years between 1962 and 1984, during which he experienced several periods of success. The iconic team designer was made an honorary citizen of the Italian city of Modena as recently as January this year.

After studying mechanical engineering, he joined Ferrari in 1960. When chief designer Carlo Chiti left a year later, the Italians asked him to head the team's technical department. That proved to be a very wise choice by Ferrari.

Forghieri experienced immediate success with John Surtees in 1964, when the former driver won the world title with Ferrari. He then had to wait for years until another world championship was won. Indeed, Niki Lauda was not next until 1975. Two years later, Lauda took the world title again, after which Jody Scheckter was also successful in 1979.

In 1984, Forghieri decided to leave his job as technical director and focus on the Ferrari 408 4RM project. The Italian left in 1987 to take up the challenge at Lamborghini. He reportedly continued to follow Formula 1 closely for the last thirty-five years.