Long before greed became the motive for cheating and treason, fuelling racial superiority and political propaganda; the ultimate good of Nations pushed men – and women – to the brink.
The story is set in Modena, Italy, where Enzo Ferrari’s racing team, the Scuderia, operates. The year is 1936. Ugo Quiresi is a young man who works for the Scuderia. His love for cars, consumes him — in the mid 1930s motor racing is the highest expression of cutting edge technology – Ugo lives in close association with his boss, Enzo Ferrari, a larger-than-life, character, who is not yet a car producer, but already the leader of the Alfa Romeo racing team. Ugo is a press officer of sorts, and more generally, assistant to Ferrari, who sees promise in him and takes him under his wing.
One evening, due to thick fog, Ugo misses the train to Cremona, where he lives and returns every Friday night. However, missing the train is a blessing in disguise, for in the empty station, he meets a young woman. They have a bite together, while waiting for the next train, and the woman shocks him by confessing she missed the train on purpose that evening... so that she could meet him. Ugo can hardly believe his luck: The woman is attractive, pleasant and smart. Could she be the love of his life?
In Modena that winter Enzo Ferrari is preparing for the new International racing season, which will soon start, come springtime. The cars to beat are the powerful and sophisticated German single-seaters, entered by Mercedes and Auto Union — which receive huge governmental funding from the Third Reich, that considers them important propaganda tools. But Enzo Ferrari has a trump card to play — Tazio Nuvolari, the greatest driver of his generation.
Before the start of the International competition, in an accident on the AVUS circuit in Berlin, German champion driver Frederick von Schwarzenberg dies at the wheel of his Auto Union. The season starts, and another accident immediately shakes the world of international car-racing. During the trails for the famous Targa Florio race in Sicily, the Alfa Romeo of the Ferrari Scuderia, driven by Mario Stradini, suddenly goes off the road. The Ferrari team technicians cannot explain the accident, it happened on a long straight stretch of road, without any apparent cause: two inexplicable accidents so close together right at the start of the season.
In the meantime, between Modena and Cremona, Ugo begins a love story with the girl he met at the train station, Monica. Now finally, he is no longer haunted by the memory of Giulia, the girl whom he had been madly in love with, before she disappeared overnight from his life without explanation.
The racing season is now well under way.
German driver Fritz Werner, the new rising star in his first season with the mighty Auto Unions, is mysteriously interrogated by two agents of the Abwehr, the Nazi Secret Service. The interrogation has no other witnesses and soon becomes dramatic. Werner says he is not interested in their game. He is a fair driver, and would not do certain things, no matter what. But what is he being asked to do? Two weeks later, Werner dies in a frightening accident at the wheel of his racing car. Is it a coincidence? Yet another one? The apparently unexplainable accidents are now three.
In Modena, at the Ferrari Scuderia, the atmosphere is shaken by the disturbing presence of a German journalist, Barbara Schumann, who is increasingly seen with the leading driver, Giuseppe Caruso Cavalcabò. They make a nice couple, but Caruso seems to be a bit out of sorts since he started dating Barbara — his behavior is different, he argues with his friends and does not have the same touch on the track that he used to. To the point that Ugo, and his journalist friend Athos, begin to have doubts about the role of the German journalist, and about the authenticity of her relationship with Caruso. In the summer, the driver is first mysteriously jilted by Barbara and then, due to a loss of concentration, dismissed by Ferrari.
In late July, returning from the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, the track the Nazis considered “the most Aryan of all,” the team manager of the Ferrari Scuderia tragically dies in a road accident. Yet another accident, again in mysterious circumstances. Athos suspects, and confides in Ugo, that it is all be part of a plan, and that Barbara is behind it all and worse still his suspicions lead him to believe that Monica, must be an accomplice.
While the two friends are planning a way to find out whether Monica is really Barbara’s accomplice, Monica suddenly disappears. Ugo is devastated. The woman of his dreams has not only left him without a word — exactly as Giulia had done before — but may also be a Nazi accomplice. It is the worst of nightmares. To make matters even more complicated, Enzo Ferrari names Ugo team manager to replace the man who was probably killed by the Nazis.
The final duel takes place on August 2nd, in Livorno, during the week-end of Coppa Ciano, the race organized by Mussolini’s son-in-law and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Galeazzo Ciano. During the night, the Nazis sabotage Enzo Ferrari’s cars and try to kill Athos, who has seen more than he was supposed to. Ugo himself luckily survives an attempt to poison him.
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