Pino Allievi was born on the shores of Lake Como in the Italian Lake District, not far from where the illustrious authors Pliny The Elder and his nephew Pliny The Younger had homes nearly 2000 years ago. In university Allievi studied sociology but was, and still is, very interested in literary criticism and Italian literature. His own writing, about Formula 1 racing in La Gazzetta dello Sport (where he has been since 1968), is of the highest standard and he is one of the most highly respected racing journalists working in any language. It was only a coincidence that his father was the administrative director for Enzo Ferrari (for three years beginning in 1937), but the connection helped Allievi gain Ferrari's confidence, providing him with a fund of exclusive material with which to entertain the multitude of Prancing Horse fans in Italy. It was also the best possible training for Allievi to develop his skills as a chronicler of the human side of the sport, which is now his specialty. "I was very close to Ferrari, he was very nice with me because of my father. Of course it was very difficult to know his secrets. He was a very complicated man. Not an easy man. He had a very complicated head on his shoulders and very sophisticated kind of talk. Ferrari had a big, big, big sense of humour, of course, and it was funny to be with him. Today in Formula 1 there is nobody with his culture. Nobody at all. Because Ferrari had total culture, from literature to history. He was a very sophisticated man. He didn't make so many studies, but he was reading books and newspapers, magazines, 'til 5:00 in the morning, sleeping only a few hours. So he was informed on everything. And today there is nobody like him. "But you have some very kind, very clever people here, like for example, Frank Williams. Even Ron Dennis, I think. I have a lot of respect for Ron Dennis, because today he has no more the arrogance that he had in the beginning, and I continue to ask myself why he wants to show the people only the worst face that he has and not the best one. Because during the time span of ten years I have discovered that Ron Dennis is a very nice person if you talk with him. Another very clever man is Gerard Larrousse, for example, and Giancarlo Minardi. "I enjoy to talk with clever people, like Senna. Definitely, a very, very clever guy, very complicated, but very clever. He has qualities that are difficult to find in other drivers. Prost is also very clever but he always suspects people. I want to include Gerard Berger because he is one of the few drivers with a sense of humour. And that's very important. He has a sense of the limit of the job that he is doing. Like Nicki Lauda, who was my close friend. Among the drivers, I also remember with a lot of affection Mario Andretti. Because, in my opinion, he had the best compromise between a man, first of all, and a driver. "Generally, the people in Formula 1 are normal and average. But plenty of them think they belong to a special kind of people. There are a lot who want to be in the jetset. You see a lot of people who want to show themselves, for the prestige, to have a satisfied ego. There are plenty that have a lot of complexes. I see that in the journalists, the constructors, the drivers, plenty of people who have chosen their career because Formula 1 goes on the front page of the newspapers. If Formula 1 was on page 16 they wouldn't have chosen this career. Maybe they would have gone to be an actor, to work in the theatre, in Hollywood, and so on. So, it's necessary to watch this kind of world with an ironic point of view...otherwise you get crazy! "I think that the average person in Formula 1 has a big head. A very, very big head. I think you see that when they are interviewed by television. They look around and they see how many people are watching them and they think to give special secrets like they are a researcher on cancer. They forget they only do a sport, with all the limits of a sport. "I think that the human quality of the engineers in Formula 1 is the best. Maybe because they did university, they did studies, they know something outside Formula 1. I only see thirty per cent of the drivers that are with their feet on the ground. All the others are, I don't want to say stupid, but like children. I often write that and I have a lot of enemies because of it. "But I want to be very realistic. I think that it's very easy to think that you can educate the people through the press. Maybe you can't, but you can describe the true side of the sport. So I try to describe the truth. But I have a lot of secrets, shocking things, I will never write because I have respect for the consequences this could have on certain people. Still, I write about the drivers with their positive points and their negative points. And you get many people who don't want you to destroy their heroes. And that's very delicate. And then, I don't think that the people reading sports have a sense of humour. They don't want to have compromises, they don't want you to make jokes about their idols. That's a problem. "Because we must do a very special job to do with a lot of people around, it's very difficult to work in this crowded atmosphere along pit lane, to have contact with the people that you want to talk to. You have five minutes of two people talking, and that's a big shame. And so, when I walk around, first, I ask myself what am I doing here? That's a demonstration that I may be in the wrong job, because sometimes I am disgusted. The drivers often say that we ask stupid questions, but I often think that I am wasting my life asking some stupid drivers normal questions to which they don't want to reply. It's very depressing to make some interviews with some people. But in Formula 1 you have sometimes to make interviews with them, and that is very boring and depressing. "I don't accept the way to make an interview is only by making jokes with the people that you interview. If you see some of the press speaking to Mansell, for example, they try to show him how nice they are, how clever they are and so they make jokes. It could be that they admire too much the driver, and if the driver feels that you admire him too much, he puts himself in the position of a star, not of a man. But if you talk on an equal level to him, everything changes. So it must be clear that we need a mutual respect. He is not the star and you are not the stupid journalist in a hurry to lick his feet. "I think that the Italian press is the more international press, because we write about everybody. For us, Ligier gets the same space as Minardi. Of course Ferrari gets the biggest space, but even in other countries Ferrari is important because they are the only team doing all the championships since 1950. The French people have a complex because they don't have a competitive team. They don't want to write that, but they have this kind of complex. "The British are very nationalistic and most of them are writing about very light things, stupid things, except for four or five journalists. These people are very definitely on the top and, personally, I think Nigel Roebuck is one of the best informed in the history of Formula 1. But there is a big gap between them and all the others. The most stupid things that I ever read is in the British press. The daily press of Great Britain is terrible, it is disgusting, it is the worst in the world! "The American press is very practical. They don't know anything about Formula 1, but when they write, they write serious things. Then you have the South American press, that is the press of the drivers, not of Formula 1 racing. But I think that the average of the Brazilian and Argentinian press is very, very good. Because, I am enough lucky to read in Spanish and Portuguese, and so I read a lot what the other people write, I can tell you that ninety percent of the time I read serious things there. Then you have the Italian press that you can divide into two sections: the sports newspapers that are very well informed - there is a big competition that makes the level go up year by year, and then you have the daily information press. The average is not bad but you find a lot of writing only about the worst things of Formula 1, and it is very easy to find the negative things here."
eBooks by Gerald Donaldson
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Saturday, September 06, 2014
Pino
Pino Allievi was born on the shores of Lake Como in the Italian Lake District, not far from where the illustrious authors Pliny The Elder and his nephew Pliny The Younger had homes nearly 2000 years ago. In university Allievi studied sociology but was, and still is, very interested in literary criticism and Italian literature. His own writing, about Formula 1 racing in La Gazzetta dello Sport (where he has been since 1968), is of the highest standard and he is one of the most highly respected racing journalists working in any language. It was only a coincidence that his father was the administrative director for Enzo Ferrari (for three years beginning in 1937), but the connection helped Allievi gain Ferrari's confidence, providing him with a fund of exclusive material with which to entertain the multitude of Prancing Horse fans in Italy. It was also the best possible training for Allievi to develop his skills as a chronicler of the human side of the sport, which is now his specialty. "I was very close to Ferrari, he was very nice with me because of my father. Of course it was very difficult to know his secrets. He was a very complicated man. Not an easy man. He had a very complicated head on his shoulders and very sophisticated kind of talk. Ferrari had a big, big, big sense of humour, of course, and it was funny to be with him. Today in Formula 1 there is nobody with his culture. Nobody at all. Because Ferrari had total culture, from literature to history. He was a very sophisticated man. He didn't make so many studies, but he was reading books and newspapers, magazines, 'til 5:00 in the morning, sleeping only a few hours. So he was informed on everything. And today there is nobody like him. "But you have some very kind, very clever people here, like for example, Frank Williams. Even Ron Dennis, I think. I have a lot of respect for Ron Dennis, because today he has no more the arrogance that he had in the beginning, and I continue to ask myself why he wants to show the people only the worst face that he has and not the best one. Because during the time span of ten years I have discovered that Ron Dennis is a very nice person if you talk with him. Another very clever man is Gerard Larrousse, for example, and Giancarlo Minardi. "I enjoy to talk with clever people, like Senna. Definitely, a very, very clever guy, very complicated, but very clever. He has qualities that are difficult to find in other drivers. Prost is also very clever but he always suspects people. I want to include Gerard Berger because he is one of the few drivers with a sense of humour. And that's very important. He has a sense of the limit of the job that he is doing. Like Nicki Lauda, who was my close friend. Among the drivers, I also remember with a lot of affection Mario Andretti. Because, in my opinion, he had the best compromise between a man, first of all, and a driver. "Generally, the people in Formula 1 are normal and average. But plenty of them think they belong to a special kind of people. There are a lot who want to be in the jetset. You see a lot of people who want to show themselves, for the prestige, to have a satisfied ego. There are plenty that have a lot of complexes. I see that in the journalists, the constructors, the drivers, plenty of people who have chosen their career because Formula 1 goes on the front page of the newspapers. If Formula 1 was on page 16 they wouldn't have chosen this career. Maybe they would have gone to be an actor, to work in the theatre, in Hollywood, and so on. So, it's necessary to watch this kind of world with an ironic point of view...otherwise you get crazy! "I think that the average person in Formula 1 has a big head. A very, very big head. I think you see that when they are interviewed by television. They look around and they see how many people are watching them and they think to give special secrets like they are a researcher on cancer. They forget they only do a sport, with all the limits of a sport. "I think that the human quality of the engineers in Formula 1 is the best. Maybe because they did university, they did studies, they know something outside Formula 1. I only see thirty per cent of the drivers that are with their feet on the ground. All the others are, I don't want to say stupid, but like children. I often write that and I have a lot of enemies because of it. "But I want to be very realistic. I think that it's very easy to think that you can educate the people through the press. Maybe you can't, but you can describe the true side of the sport. So I try to describe the truth. But I have a lot of secrets, shocking things, I will never write because I have respect for the consequences this could have on certain people. Still, I write about the drivers with their positive points and their negative points. And you get many people who don't want you to destroy their heroes. And that's very delicate. And then, I don't think that the people reading sports have a sense of humour. They don't want to have compromises, they don't want you to make jokes about their idols. That's a problem. "Because we must do a very special job to do with a lot of people around, it's very difficult to work in this crowded atmosphere along pit lane, to have contact with the people that you want to talk to. You have five minutes of two people talking, and that's a big shame. And so, when I walk around, first, I ask myself what am I doing here? That's a demonstration that I may be in the wrong job, because sometimes I am disgusted. The drivers often say that we ask stupid questions, but I often think that I am wasting my life asking some stupid drivers normal questions to which they don't want to reply. It's very depressing to make some interviews with some people. But in Formula 1 you have sometimes to make interviews with them, and that is very boring and depressing. "I don't accept the way to make an interview is only by making jokes with the people that you interview. If you see some of the press speaking to Mansell, for example, they try to show him how nice they are, how clever they are and so they make jokes. It could be that they admire too much the driver, and if the driver feels that you admire him too much, he puts himself in the position of a star, not of a man. But if you talk on an equal level to him, everything changes. So it must be clear that we need a mutual respect. He is not the star and you are not the stupid journalist in a hurry to lick his feet. "I think that the Italian press is the more international press, because we write about everybody. For us, Ligier gets the same space as Minardi. Of course Ferrari gets the biggest space, but even in other countries Ferrari is important because they are the only team doing all the championships since 1950. The French people have a complex because they don't have a competitive team. They don't want to write that, but they have this kind of complex. "The British are very nationalistic and most of them are writing about very light things, stupid things, except for four or five journalists. These people are very definitely on the top and, personally, I think Nigel Roebuck is one of the best informed in the history of Formula 1. But there is a big gap between them and all the others. The most stupid things that I ever read is in the British press. The daily press of Great Britain is terrible, it is disgusting, it is the worst in the world! "The American press is very practical. They don't know anything about Formula 1, but when they write, they write serious things. Then you have the South American press, that is the press of the drivers, not of Formula 1 racing. But I think that the average of the Brazilian and Argentinian press is very, very good. Because, I am enough lucky to read in Spanish and Portuguese, and so I read a lot what the other people write, I can tell you that ninety percent of the time I read serious things there. Then you have the Italian press that you can divide into two sections: the sports newspapers that are very well informed - there is a big competition that makes the level go up year by year, and then you have the daily information press. The average is not bad but you find a lot of writing only about the worst things of Formula 1, and it is very easy to find the negative things here."
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