\nSeen through the years of this man who\u2019s still Fury<\/em>, which used to be his nickname at Ferrari, but a kind \u201cfury\u201d, who\u2019s sensitive to beauty, the world of cars and engines emerges like a universe weaved with different factors. They\u2019re both rational and irrational at the same time. Which is the reason why, when I ask him to what extent does luck matter in the racing world, Forghieri has no doubts.
\n\u2013 Yes, luck helps. Somewhat. But it\u2019s difficult to say what it is. Lucky is a mix of things, situations and timings, therefore \u2013 nearly by miracle \u2013 you find yourself at the right place in the right moment. I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s right to call this concomitance of factors luck though. Maybe, it would be best to talk about chance. Statistics say that, in the law of large numbers, there is an area where it\u2019s most likely for a specific phenomenon to occur\u2026 however, these are statistics. They\u2019re numbers.<\/p>\n
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Things work differently in life. For example, when I was young, I used to go with a friend of mine to see the biennial exhibition in Venice. One day, we went for a swim near the Grand Hotel and we lay on the beach. At a certain point, my friend shook my arm. \u201cLook!\u201d, Bridgitte Bardot was lying down there, just fifty metres away from us. At the time, she used to go out with Sacha Distel, famous French guitarist and artist, and I remember that my friend told me that, according to the law of great numbers, he could have been the lucky one who had her as a girlfriend. Years later, one day, when I was in America, I saw my friend again and I reminded him of that afternoon and our conversation about Brigitte Bardot and the law of great numbers. \u201cSo, how did it go?\u201d I asked him. And he replied: \u201cShut up, if you saw my wife you will be shocked!\u201d So in his case, the law of great numbers hadn\u2019t worked.<\/p>\n
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\u2013 Luck aside, what matters the most in a racing car driver?
\n\u2013 It\u2019s very difficult to say, I can only tell you my opinion. In my opinion, the most important thing is the sensitivity that the driver reveals when he brings the car \u201cto the limit\u201d. You need to think that bringing the car to the limit isn\u2019t easy, especially because, as soon as you go a little further, you risk to end up off the road. At that precise moment, the driver needs to have the sensitivity to focus on the car\u2019s response and tell you what are the defects. For example: \u201cThe car\u2019s behind took off, but half-way through the swerve, regardless of what I was doing, it changed its behaviour completely.\u201d Something like this is very important: it means that the car has problems, therefore it decides what to do. The driver needs to be able to \u201cseparate\u201d things and tell you: \u201cI wasn\u2019t braking, I held the wheel like this\u2026 the left rear wheel is the first that took off because at a certain point I felt that it started to spin off\u2026\u201d If someone is driving at the limit of the curves and can give you information like this, they\u2019re not simply a good driver: they\u2019re a prodigy\u2026 And they are few prodigies around. Today, we have apparently infallible equipment, but I don\u2019t think that a machine will ever be able to tell you what the driver is able to tell you.
\n\u2013 I was just about to ask you one last question: what is worth more, the driver or the car?<\/p>\n
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