Ten years ago the automotive world greeted Sergio for the last time Pininfarinahistoric designer with a glorious past even among the ranks of Ferrari. His person was fondly remembered on the pages of Il Corriere della Sera edition Turin from Luca Cordero di Montezemolowho after defining him stubborn and fussy, clearly with a positive meaning, explained how at that time “To make beautiful cars in those years you have to come to Turin, it was automatic”. Adding, on the other hand, in a more disappointed tone, that today this is no longer the case.
“The Italian car no longer exists. Only Ferrari remains. Little or nothing in Turin – commented Montezemolo, who then focused on Stellantis – It is a French group, not an Italian one. The design that produced our country has been and continues to be, even if no longer in the car, a cultural value. Sergio Pininfarina was the emblem of those values. When he put down his pencil there was almost no need to put the Ferrari or Made in Italy logo, you knew immediately that that product came from that hand. This is a value that we risk losing ”. The former president of Ferrari wanted to specify how in Turin the lack of large Italian companies go hand in hand with the absence of charismatic figures such as that of Sergio Pininfarina, two factors that combined with each other have faded the image of the Piedmontese capital at a national level and beyond.
Montezemolo then focused on the relationship between design and the electric future of cars, and has no doubts that Pininfarina would have been a genius even in the period of the green turning point. “Design can have free rein even on electric cars. If anything, the problem is that the Italian car is no longer there: I repeat, once the Ferrari is removed, the made in Italy car no longer exists, Lamborghini is German, Fiat is French. And many great Turin coachbuilders have also disappeared. This makes it more difficult to bring out the talent of our designs and companies – concluded Montezemolo – Turin today is sad. Perhaps I say this because those giants who marked an era come to mind. But it seems to me a low, almost depressed territory. Turin was one of the most important capitals in the world in the field of design and the automotive industry. And products were produced that lasted over time, which at times became almost immortal ”.
