Romolo Tavoni (30 January 1926 – 20 December 2020) was an Italian sports executive best known for his work at

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

. Tavoni was born on 30 January 1926 in

Formigine Formigine ( Modenese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. As of 2007, Formigine had an estimated population of 31,643. History Formigine originates from the foundation of its castle in 1201 by the Comune of ...

, a small town in the province of

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

. He began his career as a bank accountant, working at Credit Italiano in Modena. In January 1950, the bank manager introduced Tavoni to

Enzo Ferrari Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; 20 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italians, Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari ...

, who was a client of the bank. Shortly after their meeting, Ferrari hired Tavoni as his private secretary. In 1951 Ferrari sent Tavoni to the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

to study how the cars were prepared for a possible future participation of the marque. Tavoni wrote a report suggesting that in order to be competitive, cars had to feature reinforced wheel hubs to deal with the four banked corners of the oval circuit. Ferrari's technical team didn't act on Tavoni's recommendation and in 1952

Alberto Ascari Alberto Ascari (; 13 July 1918 – 26 May 1955) was an Italian racing driver and a two time Formula One World Champion. He was a multitalented racer who competed in motorcycle racing before switching to cars. Ascari won consecutive world titles ...

retired his Ferrari after a few laps when one of his wheel hubs collapsed. In 1957 Tavoni was promoted

Scuderia Ferrari Scuderia Ferrari Società per Azioni, S.p.A. () is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in refere ...

's sporting director, overseeing the racing team's activities in

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...

and the European Hill Climb Championship. One of Tavoni's early races in this capacity was the

1957 Mille Miglia The 24. edizione Mille Miglia was an auto race held on a course totalling , made up entirely of public roads around Italy, mostly on the outer parts of the country on 11–12 May 1957. The route was based on a round trip between Brescia and Rome, ...

, an event marked by the fatal accident involving Ferrari drivers

Alfonso de Portago Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, 11th Marquess of Portago, GE (11 October 1928 – 12 May 1957), best known as Alfonso de Portago, was a Spanish aristocrat, racing and bobsleigh driver, jockey and pilot. Born in London to a prominent famil ...

and Edmund Nelson and that resulted in the cancellation of the race. Tavoni was also involved in Scuderia Ferrari's acrimonious split with racing driver

Jean Behra Jean Marie Behra (16 February 1921 – 1 August 1959) was a Formula One driver who raced for the Gordini, Maserati, BRM, Ferrari and Porsche teams. Appearance and personality Behra was small in stature, stocky, and weighed 178 pounds.''B ...

, when the latter punched Tavoni and another patron following a discussion over Behra's retirement at the French Grand Prix in Reims. Tavoni's most successful years as sporting director at Ferrari were 1958 and 1961, when

Mike Hawthorn John Michael Hawthorn (10 April 1929 – 22 January 1959) was a British racing driver. He became the United Kingdom's first Formula One World Champion driver in 1958, whereupon he announced his retirement, having been profoundly affected by the ...

and

Phil Hill Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American automobile racing driver. He was one of two American drivers to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and the only one who was born in the United States ( ...

won the Formula One World Championship. At the end of the 1961 season, Tavoni was fired by Enzo Ferrari during the " great walkout" together with

Carlo Chiti Carlo Chiti (19 December 1924 – 7 July 1994) was an Italian racing car and engine designer best known for his long association with Alfa Romeo's racing department. He also worked for Ferrari and was involved in the design of the Ferrari 156 Shar ...

, Giotto Bizzarrini, Enzo Selmi, Ermanno della Casa, Girolamo Gardini, Federico Giberti and Fausto Galassi. Eugenio Dragoni succeeded him as team manager. Following his departure from Ferrari, Tavoni worked at

ATS ATS or Ats may refer to: Businesses * ATS Wheels, or ''Auto Technisches Spezialzubehör'', a German wheel manufacturer and sponsor of a Formula One racing team * ATS Automation Tooling Systems, an Ontario, Canada-based factory automation company ...

and the CSAI (Italian Motor Sports Commission) in Milan. In 1965, Tavoni and Luigi Bertett (president of the Automobile Club of Milan) created "Formula Monza," a championship series designed for young and emerging racing drivers. He subsequently became the director of racing at the

Autodromo Nazionale di Monza The Monza Circuit ( it, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, , National Automobile Racetrack of Monza) is a race track near the city of Monza, north of Milan, in Italy. Built in 1922, it was the world's third purpose-built motor racing circuit after ...

. Tavoni worked full-time at Monza until 1992, and continued to work on a part-time basis until approximately age 80. After retiring, Tavoni lived at Casinalbo, near Modena. He died on 20 December, 2020 at the age of 94.

References

1926 births 2020 deaths Ferrari people People from the Province of Modena Formula One team principals Italian motorsport people {{Italy-autoracing-bio-stub