Ciao Stefano

Ciao is an italian expression; it means hi, hello and good bye. Ciao is a happy word, but sometimes it can be sad. This time my ciao is sad, because I am saying good bye to a friend, a great person who I met nearly twenty years ago when I managed Eddie Irvine and we landed the job at Ferrari. Stefano was our point of reference for everything, a great young man wanting to become a great manager. In those days at Ferrari you sensed two distinct currents: The Schumacher boys and the Irvine boys and Stefano was one of us. He could never say so because he never could in his position, but deep down Eddie and I knew. He always looked at us as if we were the ones who needed the bigger help, like you would with you younger and least experienced child. We received so much from him in those four years and we never thanked him enough. Later I met Stefano again as we dealt on various commercial and sporting issues and he always acted as the professional manager leading his company would, maintaining a friendly distance, but keeping his word like no one else in our sport. When he signed Fisichella in 2009 he was happier than me, having finally taken an Italian driver to The Scuderia under his management. And he was probably more disappointed than I was for the results. Domenicali was never a lucky man in F.1 yet luck could have changed the course of his working life in 2008, 2010 and 2012, but coming second was never good enough.Finally luck struck Stefano today, by giving him back his private life.Nothing else matters.