{"id":54060,"date":"2017-06-22T15:36:06","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T14:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/issue_content\/brenda-vernor-life-with-ferrari\/"},"modified":"2020-05-04T17:27:38","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T16:27:38","slug":"brenda-vernor-life-ferrari","status":"publish","type":"issue_content","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/archive\/article\/january-2017\/92\/brenda-vernor-life-ferrari\/","title":{"rendered":"Brenda Vernor: Life with Ferrari"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“You see the drivers every day \u2013 they\u2019re just people, neither hot not cold\u2026\u201d Drivers such as Bandini, Arnoux, Scheckter, Villeneuve, Tambay, Alboreto, Mansell \u2013 just people. Brenda Vernor is not being dismissive; she knew they were the greats of their era because they had received the highest honour \u2013 the invitation to drive for Ferrari. She knew all about it because often it was she who passed on that invitation, she who arranged their interview with Enzo Ferrari. She was Ferrari\u2019s personal assistant, and she saw the drivers every day.<\/p>\n

And the Old Man too. Every day, on hand to scoot into his private sanctum to take letters, translate correspondence, phone Bernie Ecclestone as Enzo\u2019s linguistic go-between. It was a privileged post and it went not to a Modenese signorina, not even to an Italian, but to a girl from Croydon who in time would become the mother of the racing department.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a while since she retired \u2013 after Enzo died in 1988 she continued as Piero Lardi Ferrari\u2019s PA in the road car department \u2013 but Brenda is still close to many Ferrari figures, drivers and customers. We \u2013 an MS quorum of self, Simon Arron and proprietor Edward Atkin \u2013 meet over lunch in the sun-filled garden of one such marque enthusiast in North London as Brenda pauses on her way to the States, and the questions flow.<\/p>\n

Behind her dark glasses (shades of Enzo\u2019s shades) Vernor, now in her early eighties, is precise, quick to reply, quick to dismiss when the subject is something \u2013 or someone \u2013 she dislikes. You can sense toughness, the steel that let her stand up to one of Italy\u2019s grandest men. \u201cHaving three older brothers in a house of five men,\u201d she says, \u201cI had to learn to defend myself\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Niki Lauda is mentioned, she says \u201cI like Niki. He\u2019s like me \u2013 says what he thinks and couldn\u2019t care less.\u201d In a culture built around one towering figure, a man whose employees were afraid to tell him bad news, perhaps that\u2019s why Enzo noticed her.<\/p>\n

Italy had already taken hold of her. Bored with 1960s life in Croydon \u2013 \u201cI hated Croydon. Still do.\u201d \u2013 she spent three months on a job exchange in Perugia, then 18 as an au pair<\/i> in Bologna where she had to learn Italian as none of the family spoke English. By 1962 that landed her a teaching post in Modena, where a certain Michael Parkes wanted someone to deal with correspondence and a young lad named Piero Lardi Ferrari was one of her pupils.<\/p>\n

Although by now Ferrari had splashed scarlet across the results books, it was a mere name to Brenda. She was hardly a motor sport fan. \u201cI just thought why are those silly buggers going round and round?\u201d But working for Parkes, the team\u2019s development driver, drew her into the racing world and introduced her to the other Ferrari drivers and to Enzo himself. She must have made an impact, though it was not until the 1970s that the connection crystallised. \u201cHe said \u2018one of these days I might employ you\u2019. Then he rang and said \u2018come and work for me\u2019. After a three-month trial I was still there, doing his translations, the F1 telexes to FOCA and team heads.\u201d She worked alongside two male secretaries, one handling Ferrari\u2019s personal affairs, one administrative tasks, but her language skills put her closer to the real centre, looking after drivers and working with Franco Gozzi in the press office.<\/p>\n

Some have suggested that Ferrari spoke English but concealed it; Brenda scotches this. \u201cI never heard him speak English. But he did speak good French.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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How quickly did she grasp the significance of the heritage? \u201cQuickly. Had to be quick with the Old Man, if you were dumb you were out. I was the only woman among 199 men in the racing department. I had a whale of a time. But I was respected because I did things for everybody, including the mechanics, taking them cakes and beer during an all-nighter. If they needed anything they knew where to come. And if they did something wrong I put them in their place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did the Old Man criticise her? \u201cNot criticise, but if you wrote something he had to change it, even if it was just a comma. Once I wrote a telex and he said \u2018move that here and put that there and when you\u2019ve changed it bring it to me at the Cavallino [restaurant]\u2019 \u2013 he always had his lunch there. I took it, he chucked it in the air screaming. I said \u2018I did exactly what you said\u2019. He said \u2018Humph. Send it\u2019. That was all. He wouldn\u2019t apologise, or say thank you. If we had a press conference, he would want the whole thing transcribed on Sunday; he would never personally thank me, but on Monday I\u2019d find a present on my desk \u2013 a watch, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did he ever admit a mistake? \u201cNo. And you never argued with the Old Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Brenda was establishing a life in Modena Ferrari was recovering from a fallow couple of years following the Carlo Chiti-led walkout of 1961, with Surtees taking the 1964 world championship and charismatic team-mate Lorenzo Bandini fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cLorenzo was a lovely guy.\u201d Brenda recalls, animated. \u201cI lived in the same block of flats. He was a naughty boy. He used to bang on my door at 2am, asking me to help him cover his tracks \u2013 I\u2019d be shaking blonde hairs from his sheets. He had a photo of his wife which he\u2019d lay flat at such times, then when he picked it up he\u2019d say, \u2018You know I love you.\u2019 I was in Monte Carlo when he died [following a crash in the 1967 GP] and said I\u2019d never go back there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then there was \u2018Lulu\u2019 [Lodovico Scarfiotti]. God, the things they did. They sometimes used to lock me in my bedroom, but they were good times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bandini\u2019s was only one of many Grand Prix fatalities in this fragile time. How did the team handle those? \u201cWe just carried on as though it were a normal day. Whenever the team lost a race on Sunday, you\u2019d walk in on Monday and there would be silence everywhere. There were no discussions and it was just the same when there was a fatality. You didn\u2019t go and see Mr Ferrari; you just closed your door. When you lose somebody, there\u2019s nothing you can do to bring them back, is there?\u201d<\/p>\n

If that sounds hard, it\u2019s the realism of racing. All teams race on after these traumas, yet Vernor\u2019s memories show close ties between her and most \u2013 not all \u2013 of the Scuderia\u2019s drivers. \u201cI did everything for them, packed their bags. You wouldn\u2019t believe some of their luggage when they came back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Care to tell us? \u201cNo. I\u2019ve written a book all about the drivers \u2013 My Boys. They\u2019re getting worried. If I told everything they\u2019d shoot me. Gerhard Berger said, \u2018If you write everything about me I\u2019ll have to take the boat out to sea. My wife will kill me!\u2019 They were good times. We had fun, real fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some had extra appeal. \u201cJochen Rindt\u2019s eyes \u2013 oh my God! The most beautiful eyes I\u2019ve ever seen. And the first time I saw Carlos Reutemann I couldn\u2019t talk. I\u2019d never seen such
\na handsome guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Enzo at work<\/p>\n

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Then there\u2019s Patrick Tambay, who rates her highest epithet \u2013 a gentleman. \u201cPatrick was the only driver I cried for when he left. [Sporting director Marco] Piccinini and Piero came into my office and stuck up a huge poster of Alboreto. I said, \u2018You can take that down immediately\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand \u2013 \u201cI remember sewing a Ferrari patch on Andretti\u2019s overalls and he didn\u2019t even say thank you. I thought, \u2018You miserable bugger\u2019.\u201d And Alain Prost? Crisp comment \u2013 then \u201cdon\u2019t put that down\u201d.<\/p>\n

She is more forthright about Michael Schumacher, who in the 2000s brought such astounding success back to Maranello. \u201cI\u2019m very sorry about what has happened to him, but there was something I didn\u2019t like. All the other drivers stayed in hotels, or found a flat, but he moved in to The Old Man\u2019s house, had his dogs in there eating off the floor and wanted clean sheets every day. I wondered who the hell he thought he was \u2013 he was just a driver like any of the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

She won\u2019t admit to having favourites, but some drivers figure larger in her stories, especially those she\u2019s still in touch with \u2013 Arnoux, Scheckter, Tambay, Alesi. \u201cThey were all my boys. Ren\u00e9 Arnoux never grows up. He\u2019s always the same, a heart of gold. I won\u2019t have anything said against him. Unfortunately he\u2019s very na\u00efve and he gets into the wrong company who lead him astray\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there was Gilles Villeneuve, who scared the hell out of her in his 328. \u201cOh my god! One evening Ingeniere Ferrari\u201d \u2013 Vernor never called him anything but Ingeniere or Mr Ferrari \u2013 \u201cinvited us to dinner up in the mountains. Gilles said \u2018You\u2019d better come with me as I don\u2019t know where it is.\u2019 It was a narrow twisty road up in the mountains and he drove like a madman. I said \u2018Listen, if a car comes the other way we won\u2019t be here tomorrow.\u2019 \u2018Oh, I\u2019m enjoying myself!\u2019 \u2018I don\u2019t care, stop this bloody car, I\u2019m getting out\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

On another occasion Gilles burst into the works, exclaiming, \u201cBloody car, the brakes don\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI sent the car to the experimental department,\u201d says Brenda. \u201cHalf an hour later they rang and said it was ready. \u2018What was the matter?\u2019 \u2018Would you ask Mr Villeneuve to put coins in his pocket and not under the brake?\u201d<\/p>\n

Brenda has many mementos in her Modena flat \u2013 she has no interest in returning to the UK \u2013 but one is extra-special. \u201cI phoned Gilles in Monte Carlo because I needed some certificate. So he sent me the document and instead of putting \u2018Brenda Vernor, care of Ferrari\u2019 he put \u2018Ferrari, care of Brenda Vernor\u2019. I still have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She may not yet have been officially on the strength, but Vernor was on the scene as the Scuderia went through the Surtees schism, when during the one sports car race that really mattered to Enzo Il Grande<\/i> John\u2019s frustrations with team manager Eugenio Dragoni boiled over. \u201cI was at Le Mans in 1966 when it all happened. Dragoni and John had an argument, Dragoni phoned The Old Man and John walked out. They put Mike [Parkes] in John\u2019s place so then he had it in for Mike. Mike was just doing what he\u2019d been told but John refused to talk to him. I stayed with John a few years ago and he was still saying, \u2018Your Mike this, your Mike that.\u2019 He wouldn\u2019t speak to Mike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brenda, on the other hand, had a soft spot for Parkes, despite another scary trip. \u201cA charmer \u2013 couldn\u2019t tell you all the girls he had.\u00a0I remember driving back from Brands Hatch in an Imp and it was foggy in France but he wouldn\u2019t stop. There was a guy keeping up with him which annoyed him, so he switched off his lights and kept going at full speed in thick fog.\u00a0I wanted to stop at a hotel but he said \u2018No, let\u2019s go on.\u2019 That was after he\u2019d been racing all day. We got in at 3am. That was Mike\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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“Il Ingegnere” spreads the good word<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve talked much about the Scuderia\u2019s pilots as we consume our host\u2019s chicken salad. It\u2019s time to find out some secrets about the Old Man himself, about his vague wartime life, his unclear political affiliations, the firm\u2019s opaque finances. Only Brenda isn\u2019t playing. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to say; he never talked about himself, to anyone.\u201d That may be entirely true, but at another point she relates \u201cThe Old Man said, \u2018I took you because you are like the three monkeys: hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil\u2019.\u201d You get the sense that if a rival team had tied her up and interrogated her for secrets, they\u2019d have got nothing\u2026<\/p>\n

There are flashes of illumination: that Enzo liked opera but never took a holiday; that he dressed well in British clothes; that he watched the televised races from Fiorano with Sergio Scaglietti, his best friend; that he never talked about Dino, the loved son lost to muscular dystrophy in 1956 at the age of 24; that the perpetual dark glasses were no public affectation. \u201cI don\u2019t think he liked looking at people. He seemed to be embarrassed by it. I never saw him without sunglasses.\u201d<\/p>\n

She agrees that he saw the road cars as fund-raisers for racing, but continues \u201cHe wanted to be driven in every new car. If a customer complained, he\u2019d want to know why. He liked to be on top of everything.\u201d He was no slouch himself, either: she relates a hair-raising drive with him in a 330GTC, adding \u201cEven when he didn\u2019t drive any more he\u2019d say to his chauffeur \u2013 quicker, quicker!\u201d<\/p>\n

But as is well known he had no sentiment for old racing cars: \u201cThey just chopped them up. I\u2019d see these bits of F1 and sports cars at the back of the factory and think \u2018My god, they must be nuts\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

On politics, Vernor\u2019s take is this: \u201cYou never knew which party he followed. Some said he was socialist, others felt he was something else. You could never discuss it. I\u2019m sure his voting depended on what he wanted and which way the wind was blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet this powerful man, one notch down\u00a0from the Papacy in Italian eyes, was in touch with his employees. \u201cHe always tried to\u00a0give jobs to local people, and when one got cancer he paid for specialist treatment without anyone knowing\u201d.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t so affable with those in closer positions, nervous of his responses to anything less than success. \u201cThey used to tell him what they wanted to tell him,\u201d says Brenda. \u201cSo after a while the Old Man decided he wanted a\u00a0telex from each of them so he really knew\u00a0what went on.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as he aged, more direct control passed to his subordinates; imported design skills supplanted home-grown; drivers negotiated harder. The old world of the autocrat was vanishing; the web\u2019s threads still led to the centre, but fewer twitches disturbed that dimly-lit den. In 1982 the racing team moved out of the venerable old works to a modern facility at Fiorano circuit; it was also the year Gilles Villeneuve was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cGilles was like another son to him. People would say, \u2018He breaks the cars all the bloody time,\u2019 but The Old Man would never say a word against Gilles.\u201d Yet he responded as expected to the terrible news. \u201cMonday morning was Monday morning, as usual. He did take care of the family, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Modena remains her home, the factory is no longer her place. She\u2019s cagey about the new regime after Enzo\u2019s death, but the impression is that she felt the talents of Piero Lardi, Ferrari\u2019s illegitimate son, were overlooked as Fiat increased its dominance, though he has stated in this magazine he did not want to head the firm, and has proved a valued diplomat as vice-president.<\/p>\n

\u201cPiero had a difficult time with his Old Man. He was very hard on him. Piero is technically very skilled but was never allowed to show what he could do. It was Ferrari\u2019s mother who said Piero must work in the business, the only woman the Old Man was frightened of. She used to ring him: \u201cEnzo!\u201d He\u2019d say, \u2018Yes, mama!\u2019 and stand to attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Luca di Montezemolo, who in 1991 came from Fiat to become president of Ferrari, Vernor pauses \u2013 \u201cYou\u2019re asking me embarrassing questions.\u201d A phone call reminds her she has things to do, that pleasant though it\u2019s been in this sunny London garden we\u2019ve had our slot. We put our recorders away but not before catching her lament. \u201cFerrari is not the same. When I worked there we were small, we were a family. With the Old Man there were certain things you did and didn\u2019t do. I wouldn\u2019t last five minutes now. Montezemolo said to Piero \u2018Brenda talks too much.\u2019 I know the company has grown but I reckon the Old Man turns in his grave every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"author":750,"featured_media":654835,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121674],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/750"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54060"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654944,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54060\/revisions\/654944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54060"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=54060"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=54060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}