At the Turin Book Fair the car and nautical successes of Cesare Fiorio told by the Christian son. From the rally with the Lancia to Formula 1 in Ferrari and that negotiation to bring Ayrton Senna to the Cavallino
Eighteen world titles between rally and endurance, Ferrari’s sports direction in Formula 1, the record of the blue ribbon for the Atlantic crossing with the steed in 1991. Cesare Fiorio He spent his life chasing excellence, on the track, on the road and by the sea. Cristiano Fioriothird -born born in 1972 and today a global manager of marketing and communication of Alfa Romeo, defines him as a “courageous captain”, a man who has been able to create the right occasions with tenacity, even in difficult times. “He was a dad little present physically – always engaged in races – but very present with his personality” he explained to the Turin Book Fair during the presentation of “Cesare stratospheric Fiorio“(Piemme, 2024). Cristiano Fiorio portrays a really stratospheric dad on the page starting from his memories.” I didn’t ask him anything during writing, the most intense moment was when I had to let him read what I had written, “he explains.
The beginnings
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The story starts from the childhood of Caesar, born in 1939, and from the roar of the first engine it learned to recognize. It was that of the father’s car, Sandro Fiorio, who returned from Turin after a day of work in the family tuition, which was then discovered, the fulcrum of the Piedmontese resistance. After the war Sandro became head of the Lancia communicationstarting a passion that continues to mark all the generations of the Fiorio family (Alex Fioriobrother of Cristiano, was the world champion Rally Group N in 1987) and that for Cesare, after the pilot experience and the Italian GT 1150 cc title, it became a job that led him to the car of automotive, by the rally and world championships with Lancia, also told in the film “Race for Glory“Of Scamarcio, up to Formula 1.
Not just victories
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But among the companies of one of the most successful managers in the history of sports car automotive there are certainly moments of difficulty. As a sports director, Cesare Fiorio was one step away to bring Senna at Ferrari. The very secret negotiations in March 1990 in Brazil, at the home of the champion and without lawyers, ended with the signature of a pre-contract, the request of an F40 and the choice of Patrese as a teammate, because Senna wanted a strong driver who was able to challenge him. Upon returning to Maranello Cesare Fiorio, he thought he had concluded the most important deal of his life and instead things went differently.
The blue ribbon
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Fiorio left Ferrari in 1991. “On the one hand, the epilogue of Senna’s story could be experienced as something sad or bankruptcy” explains Cristiano. “For him it was a stimulus to start a new chapter of his life which then was perhaps the most important ever, that of the history of the steed”. With the ship fastest of all time, 67.7 meters long with 52,000 HP of power and propulsion in hydroes, Cesare Fiorio marked the 58 -hour record, 34 minutes and 50 seconds for the Atlantic crossing.
Fiorio, inspiration for young people
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Here too the company risked becoming a failure. “In the first leg, despite having waited 3 months to find the right weather, they found a storm with Forza 9, the boat broke in various parts and were about to declare the abandonment ship. They managed to find shelter near the coast, they embarked a lot of water, arriving seeds sinked in New York and after a month of repairs they retained the record” says Cristiano. He adds that to guide him, during the writing of the book that tells the life of his father there has always been the idea that Cesare Fiorio’s life could “inspire today’s young people”, especially not to hit. “You have to dare and believe in your dreams, in life it takes courage. Cesare was a man of courage.”
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