F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali has emphasised the vital role images play in the storytelling of F1 and how they contribute to the growth in popularity among audiences of all ages.
Domenicali was speaking on the eve of the British Grand Prix at the London launch of a new book, Ferrari: From Inside and Outside. The book features the work of two of F1’s greatest photographers, Ercole Colombo and Rainer Schlegelmilch. Domenicali was part of Ferrari’s dream team with Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher that dominated the sport in the 2000s and team principal until 2015.
‘I came into Ferrari knowing already both Ercole and Rainer as they were the ones capturing for supporters and tifosi the best pictures and the best moments of racing,’ he said. ‘Before I knew them, before my professional experience in F1 began, I was watching F1 through their eyes. They became very important people in the world of F1, through the fact that they were always able to capture the right moment with the right tension that you can feel also from looking at a picture.
‘Their role is very important, because we don't have to forget that now we have social media, we have a lot of different digital ways of speaking about F1. It has a vital role for the new generation of fans to understand more of the history of our sport.’
Ferrari: From Inside and Outside represents the first time that Colombo and Schlegelmilch have collaborated. Colombo is the ultimate insider; a man whose skills as a networker rival his skills with a camera. Enzo Ferrari picked him out to be his photographer, capturing behind the scenes moments. Schlegelmilch, in contrast, is the outsider, an observer who also pioneered techniques for capturing the impression of speed in an image.
Their work is at the heart of the Motorsport Images library, the largest archive of its kind in the world with 26 million images, including an unbroken history of F1, every GP since F1 began in 1950.
The theme of inside and outside is mirrored in the text of the book, edited by James Allen, highlighting the contrast between the fans’ perception of Ferrari from the outside and the lived experience of some of the team’s leaders since Enzo Ferrari: Mauro Forghieri, Luca di Montezemolo, Jean Todt, and Domenicali. They, together with Enzo’s son Piero Ferrari have each contributed a chapter to the book.
As well as the standard retail book a limited edition version of the book has been released, bound in fine cloth and slipcased. The books are numbered and signed by both photographers. There are only 150 books in this release of which 75 also have two exclusive prints included.
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