Scarlet Fever

It’s the first run of a new Ferrari at Fiorano and, as tradition demands, it’s mayhem in Maranello. The tifosi gather in number – and hope springs eternal. Forza!

- Anthony Peacock

Traffic duty at rush hour next to the Colosseum in Rome would be preferable to this – or maybe even herding sheep in the depths of rural Tuscany. But for one day every year, a few police officers in Maranello draw the short straw and are sent to the flyover at Via Abetone Inferiore, just down the road from the iconic Ferrari factory gates. The only consolation is that it’s close enough for a lunch break at the equally legendary Montana restaurant, which is so full of memorabilia that it’s more redolent of Räikkönen than ravioli these days.

There’s a great view of the Fiorano test track from the flyover – and that’s the problem for these bold officers of the law. Every time a new Ferrari F1 car runs, the tifosi gather at the bridge like supplicants at communion, ready to show their support and divine the prospects for the season ahead.

Unfortunately, it’s not only the tifosi who want a piece of that bridge. Via Abetone Inferiore is one of the main access roads into Maranello, so joining them is the usual caravan of trucks thundering to and from the local industrial estates, overloaded Fiat Pandas on the school run, boy racers with their go-faster Puntos, and – this being Maranello – the occasional man-racer in a Ferrari as well. Not to mention, shortly after we arrived, a carload of nuns in an ancient Renault 4. In short, it’s a true Italian job of eclectic traffic chaos.