Asterix ferrarista

When Albert Uderzo sat down at the table of the Montana restaurant in Maranello, a place that was Schumacher’s true second home, and ordered tortellini with an expression that barely concealed the voraciousness of the moment, he looked more like an austere bank official than the glittering character he created: Asterix the Gaul. But for Albert, Maranello meant but one thing, even more than Mamma Rossella’s tortellini: Ferrari.

Remembering him today, after having known and frequented him back then, I am reminded of his great passion for red Italian cars, a sort of poetic justice for an author who, during his 92 years of life frequently designed Italics being mocked by the Gauls! Ferrari was special to him, like those who worked there. Jean Todt in particular who even agreed to play a part, together with Michael Schumacher, in the film Asterix at the 2008 Olympics. The overly severe Todt in the pits and the icy champion on a chariot in a scene from Ancient Rome cried out to the world the passion of Uderzo for Ferrari, for Maranello and for… Italy.