Shell and Ferrari an inspiring relationship

Maranello Italy is the Mecca for car junkies like myself, primarily because it is the birthplace for some of the most exotic, high performance vehicles around. Even though factories for several supercars, such as Lamborghini, Pagani, and Ferrari are a stone’s throw away from each other, the one that owns the town is clearly Ferrari. Its like going to Staples Center in Los Angeles, you know that the Clippers, WNBA’s Sparks, and NHL’s Kings play there as well, but everyone knows that it’s the home of the Lakers.

Shell gave myself and other members of the Shell Network of Champions from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, an all access Ferrari experience that will forever be remembered.  You maybe thinking, why would Shell bring a bunch of bloggers and media people to the Ferrari factory, well its because Shell and Ferrari have had a partnership for over 60 years, in fact their relationship actually began over 80 years ago, when Enzo Ferrari started using Shell for his original race cars. This is why you can win Ferrari toy cars, original Ferrari Scuderia apparel, and a trip to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, when you gas up in Shell.  They are bonded by three key elements that make the partnership perfect.

1.     Passion: The passion of the people who work there.

2.     Technology & Innovation: Ferrari engineers and Shell Scientists

3.     Winning Mentality: On the track and the road.

We were welcomed by non other than Stefano Domenicali, the big boss of the Ferrari F1 team, during breakfast at the Ferrari Ristorante, where we were treated to a hearty breakfast, with food that is typically served to the Ferrari team, while they are on the road, during the F1 calendar.  

After breakfast we made our way to tour the factory and despite the jetlag, all my senses were working overtime to soak in the special moment. Seeing the California, F458 Italia, the FF, and the 599 Fiorano up close and personal made me feel like I walked into Toys R’ Us for the first time back when I was about 4 years old. I was looking everywhere and I couldn’t get enough of it. The factory seemed a little laid back even though there were technicians working intensely, you can tell they were really into what they were doing and not seem like mindless robots relying on muscle memory to put things together, which is what you would imagine how other car factories would be like.

As cool as the road car assembly line area was, once we got to the F1 section of the factory, things got downright awesome. Since Ferrari not only creates race engines for their F1 team, but also teams like Toro Rosso and Sauber, their customers and competitors as well. So you can imagine how top-secret things were in there. We chatted with the engineers who gave us the ins and out of what they go through making the race engines and even saw the engine that Felipe Massa used earlier this season. We then entered this hangar with the old F1 cars parked inside, some cars were over 10 years old and to my amazement almost all of them have been sold to private owners! Of course I couldn’t stroll in there with a few million dollars and purchase one, there is a selection process that loyal Ferrari customers go through to obtain these bad boys, and after you buy them, you leave them there, because it is not easy to maintain an F1 car. To give you an idea of how exclusive it is to own an old F1 car, the 2003 Ferrari of Schumi sold for over 2 million Euros (that’s a house and lot in Forbes Park.)

The next day we had the privilege to play around with a fleet of F458 Italias on the legendary Fiorano racetrack, where Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Schumi and even Pope John Paul 2 (with the help of Enzo Ferrari’s son) have raced around. Now I’ve had the chance to race here in the Philippines, and I can tell you that the experience in Fiorano is out of this world. It will go down as one of the most fun moments of my life and going flat out down the straight with a big smile on my face will probably be one of the most exhilarating memories I’ll be able to keep.  As the day went by and my time on the track kept getting faster and faster, I didn’t want to leave. If the movie “Groundhog Day” were real, this would be right up there with the day I would like to live over and over again.

We capped the day with a visit to the Museo Ferrari and a dinner in the hall, which housed the most recent Ferrari F1 champions, a fitting end to an experience that will be remembered for a long time.