Mario Tadini

Sir,

Can I congratulate Mark Hughes on his story in the April issue about that most manipulative individual, Enzo Ferrari? It also seems that Ferrari took himself rather seriously and did not have much of a sense of humour when Ricart told him that he (Ricart) wore thick soled shoes to prevent jarring to his brain, he was surely ‘taking the mickey’ and Ferrari could not see the joke!

In the mid-1920s, Ferrari worked not for Alfa Romeo itself but for the Milano sales agent, a company controlled by Antonio Ascari. When the Scuderia Ferrari was wound up towards the end of 1937 by its then controlling shareholder Alfa Romeo (they had owned 80 per cent of the shares since the spring of the year) Enzo Ferrari went to work for Alfa Romeo themselves for the first time, the new racing team being called Alfa Corse. By the way, the Scuderia could be described as the official Alfa racing team from August 1933, when Alfa released the Tipo B to the team, until the end of the 1937 season (and not 1934-6).

However, the real reason for this letter is to come to the defence of Mario Tadini who is categorised as one of the “wealthy enthusiasts without the skills to become big-time racers”. Although Tadini failed to really shine in front line Grand Prix events, he scored notable podium finishes in Alfa 2.3s, Tipo Bs, 8C35s and 12C36s, especially in his hillclimbing speciality. But his greatest drives were surely in the 1934 and ’35 Mille Miglias, finishing second in his privately-entered Monza to a “two-seater” Tipo B in the latter year. Mark focuses correctly on the fantastic duel between Varzi’s Ferrari-entered Monza and Nuvolari’s `private’ one in the 1934 event but Tadini’s times in the run down to Rome in his Ferrari-entered Monza Alfa outshone them both!

I am, yours, etc. Simon Moore, Singapore