“I would never have thought of doing 5 days. It’s been 30 years. It was by a combination of circumstances that Gino Rosato joined Ferrari in 1991. Thirty years later, he is part of the management team and is a full member of the “family” of the Scuderia.
Posted at 2:56 p.m.
Nothing suggested that Rosato would make a career in the world of motor racing. The 18-year-old Gino was a dishwasher in a Montreal hotel during the Canadian Grand Prix when his boss asked him to go to the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit to help the chef of Ferrari, who had suffered a serious burn.
Born to a Quebec mother and an Italian father, Rosato already spoke three languages: French, English and Italian. He therefore played the translators for the team. And then it was over: the Quebecer had a foot in Ferrari. The following year, he found himself helping the stable with logistics.
“It went so well that the gentleman in logistics asked me if I wanted to do other Grands Prix. I spoke the languages, no one spoke them. I was like an astronaut,” he tells The Press inside the headquarters of Ferrari, behind the paddocks of the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
“I left that year and did five or six Grands Prix. My father didn’t want me to quit school. But I left. »
Lifestyle change
It was in 1993 that Gino Rosato had “the luck that changed [sa] life “. At the request of former Canadian Grand Prix boss Normand Legault, he picked up Peugeot Talbot Sport racing program boss Jean Todt at the airport. The latter was in town for the GT series. Rosato did the taxi for him.
A month later, Todt became team leader of the Scuderia. Logically, Rosato did neither one nor two: he gave her a phone call. So Todt found a place for him in the logistics department.
“I became his right arm,” says the Quebecer, who over the years has held numerous titles at Ferrari. Now he is a member of the management team.
I am with [le chef d’équipe de Ferrari Mattia] Binotto. On a daily basis, I solve problems. There are different things that cannot be seen. I am behind the scene. I’m more comfortable there. There are a lot of things happening daily politically.
Gino Rosato
Rosato left Ferrari in 2009 to become vice president of corporate affairs at Lotus. After three years, he was back with the Scuderia. “Ferrari is Ferrari. At the end of the day, it’s the truth. »
“I have always enjoyed my time at Lotus, but […] it’s a family here for me,” he says.
“I go around the world with people I love,” he sums up.
The Laval resident has accumulated “thousands of memories” over the years. His most precious remains his first championship with Ferrari, in 1999.
“Being very close to Jean Todt, if we didn’t win that year, we would all have left. I was 27 at that time. »
“The world looked at us as if we were the problem. But when you win! Zero to hero, like that. But that’s part of the sport, of the competition. I will never forget that. »
“The Elvis Presley of Ferrari”
Gilles Villeneuve didn’t have time to win a championship with Ferrari, but he left his mark as the man and driver he was. Gino Rosato realized this as soon as he arrived at Ferrari.
“When I speak Italian, it’s clear that I’m not Italian. Wherever I went, when I started working in the world, I was a Quebecer, he says. The world has no idea what Gilles left behind. […] The soul and the passion that he was able to leave behind, this madness that reminds a little of the Italians as a people, it was the perfect mix. »
“He became the Elvis Presley of Ferrari,” he adds. It’s something special. In the shops, the posters are still there today. It’s amazing, to see what he left without ever having won (a championship). »