Ing. Nicola Materazzi Career

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28 Jan 1939, Caselle in Pittari (Salerno, Italy) - Nicola is born in a family of doctors. The town of Caselle is just south of the Parco Nazionale del Cilento

[content] - The family moves to Sapri, where Nicola goes to school at the Liceo Classico Carlo Pisacane (now situated in via Gaetani) and obtains the Maturita' Classica in June of 1958

Sep 1958 to Feb 1966 - University education in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Naples. N.M. obtains his Degree after completing a long thesis on the Study of Vibration and Balancing of an Engine Crankshaft, under the very strict and experienced Prof. Angelo Raffaele Guido

Summers of 1964 and 1965 - 3 month internships in the Mobil oil refinery in Naples (later purchased by Gulf). Although the work is relatively dull, this experience learning about fuel formulation for energy and lubricity will be invaluable during his time in Ferrari Formula One (with Agip) and Bugatti (with Elf)

Apr 1966 to Oct 1967 - Military service as Ufficiale del Genio, the latter part as a driving instructor

May 1966 - Attending the first Targa Florio as a spectator. The Ferrari Dino cars leave a lasting impression thanks to their agility along the technical circuit

Oct 1967 to Jun 1968 - University teaching assistant for the technical drawing Professor at the faculty of Mechanical Engineering. He quits the job once the 1968 student uprisings start and several teachers are under threat

Febr 1968 - N.M. sends a (now famous) short letter to the Human Resources office at Lancia of Turin. The HR Director has a positive reaction to his succinct lexicon and answers two weeks later inviting him for an interview at the end of March. The interview goes well and the agreement is to start as soon as his obligations to the University are completed

Jun 1968 to 1978 - Work in Lancia, at the "Grattacielo" (sky-scraper) in the department then called "Calculations" where analysis were initially done by hand, then on a punch-card mainframe computer once this was made available (the equivalent department today is called Computer Aided Engineering). N.M. works on the Flavia, Fulvia 1300 and 1600HF (* the HF letters refer to "high fidelity", the cars sold to customers who were loyal to the company and owned at least 5 cars)

October 1969 - Fiat makes a bid to take over Lancia, which had been incurring noticeable losses in the second half of the '60s

September 1970 - N.M. is present as a spectator at Monza during the practice when Jochen Rindt tragically loses his life

1971 - N.M. becomes responsible for Sporting Vehicles (typically Rally) and works on the MacPherson suspension and rear part of the chassis for the Stratos in preparation for entering some open rallies for 1972

1972 - Lancia starts entering the Stratos in various open rallies. It wins its first race at Sanremo in 1974 with Sandro Munari and Mario Mannucci. Materazzi works as a calculations specialist to assist the design and engineering team to get the car homologated by October 1974: suspension arms, steering rack mounts, uprights, suspension geometry, gearbox ratios for different tracks etc.

1974 - For each year the Stratos receives development updates. In particular the 1000 Lakes Rally of Finland (which N.M. affectionately calles the 1000 Jumps Rally) causes the rear chassis to have small creases near the damper mounts so he performs calculations to update the steel structures to cope with the most intense rally impacts

end of 1974 - N.M. is transferred fully to the Racing Department to look after the Group 4 (normally aspirated, 4 valves per cylinder) and Group 5 (turbocharged, 2 valves per cylinder) Stratos cars. This is an important stage in his career during which he has very close contact with turbochargers, which unfortunately are mostly of the frame for trucks rather than small cars (high inertia and associated lag)

1975-1976 - Work on the Stratos Group 5 (Silhouette) which is used for circuit racing until the Director decides to stop running the car at the end of the year

1977 - The decision is made at management level that the Fiat and Lancia racing departments are to be merged from January 1978

1978 - Fiat chooses to race the 131 to promote it globally. From March until September N.M. is fortunately loaned to Abarth to work on the more exciting Formulino Fiat Abarth for Lampredi. The championship is won by Emanuele Pirro with Nannini the runner-up

end of 1978 to Dec 1979 - Work in Osella for the Formula 2 which would run with Pirelli tyres. In the second half of 1979 a common friend mentions the interest from Ferrari to hire him and eventually Enzo Ferrari meets Materazzi in October 1979

3 Dec 1979 to 1989 - End of work in Osella and start of a new chapter in Ferrari, which had won the Formula 1 championship with Jody Scheckter in the 312T4. N.M. is tasked with solving development issues encountered on the new 120 degrees V6 turbocharged engine (tipo 021). This period of the 1980s sees Sguazzini and Ghidella as Presidents and Alzati as General Director and is considered to be a successful period for the brand's turbocharged cars thanks to Materazzi's eye for detail

1980 to 1984 - N.M. works in Gestione Sportiva on the design of the F1 engines for the seasons '80, '81, '82, '83 and in 1982 is appointed responsible for the Technical Office of the Gestione Sportiva

1981 to 1983 - Transition years when N.M. is mostly involved in Gestione Sportiva but receives requests to also work on engines that may be required to boost the performance and sales of the Gestione Industriale (road-going cars) for which Enzo Ferrari coins a trademark name of "auto sonnacchiose": sleepy cars with lackustre performance due to emissions regulations and possibly the interference of FIAT management and industrial cost-cutting processes

1981 - Start of N.M.'s work on turbocharged V8 engine for racing (Lancia LC2) and production (GTO).

One evening Enzo Ferrari calls N.M. to talk about the plans for a production car 3 Litre turbo engine, which is expected to produce 330 HP. Materazzi comments that 300 is a low specific output (a waste of the turbocharger's potential) and a more appropriate output would be 400 HP. The response from Ferrari is "allora lo faccia lei" which translates to an invitation for Materazzi to oversee development. When N.M. mentions the existing obligations for the 126C engine and other F1 duties, Ferrari suggests he start in the evening and then some engineers will be drafted in to support and alleviate the workload. In this respect Enzo Ferrari can be seen as a very demanding patron but one with an understanding of people's passion and the ability to make compromises with people's needs and personal lives. A thirds small office space is made alongside the ones for GES and GT for the design team to work on the 3 litre engine that would later be adapted to 2.85 litres to meet racing regulations and be fitted also to the Lancia LC2. Any work on saturday or late evening is paid as overtime.

10 Apr 1983 - The Martini-livered Lancia LC2 cars fitted with the 268 engines (2.6L V8) developed by N.M. debut in the new Group C championship at the Monza 1000km. Their drivers are Alboreto, Patrese, Ghinzani, Fabi, Heyer, Nannini, Barilla (with Wollek from 1984). They immediately face strong competition from Porsche and drivers such as Boutsen, Bell, Bellof, Ickx, Mass but the car is the fastest. It suffers some reliability problems against the slower but more reliable 956s

Mar 1984 - After several years of work on the engine, gearbox, chassis and bodywork, the GTO is revealed at the Geneva show and is very well received. Ferrari officially reports the name as GTO but the car is often referred with the 288 numbering relating to the 2.85 litre engine and 8 cylinders

1984 - The Ferrari Testarossa is released, featuring the engine on which N.M. had co-collaborated

1985 - The Ferrari 328 is released, featuring the engine on which N.M. had co-collaborated

1986 - The Ferrari 328 GTB Turbo is realeased, featuring the engine which was developed with N.M.'s know-how from the Stratos rally cars and the Ferrari F1 cars. The Turbo featured a intercooled 2.0L engine (the earlier 208 Turbo did not have intercooling and suffered overheating) for the Italian market where a law had been passed to increase VAT to 34% on cars above 2 litres of displacement. The law was in effect created after FIAT lobbied the italian government to disadvantage the competition from BMW, Mercedes and other foreign brands

1986 - Six GTO Evoluzione cars are completed (the intended number was 20) to comply with FIA Group B regulations but the FIA cancels the series due to mounting safety concerns. The car is to Materazzi's design and development, although there are elements of the aerodynamics from Pininfarina which he is not convinced about, such as the high drag coefficient, something which he aims to reduce for the F40 development. The car is very quick and light: 650 HP and 940 kg.

Beginning of 1986 - In parallel to the GTO activities, N.M. works on the new 3.4 litre V8 engine which will be fitted to the Mondial T and later the 348. This 4 valves/cylinder engine will form the basis for the later 5 valves/cylinder engine for the 355

10 Jun 1986 to 21 Jul 1987 - Development of the F40 which is completed in very short space of time due to Enzo Ferrari's gut feeling that he does not have many more years to live and thanks to his promise that Materazzi can choose his collaborators: he famously makes a note on his agenda "No rompi coglioni", meaning no ball-busting people from FIAT or other management interfering with the project

1987 to 1989 - Difficult years due to Enzo Ferrari's age and the change of President from Ghidella, who had always respected E.F.'s wishes, to Piero Fusaro who is much more intent on pleasing the FIAT investors rather than understanding Ferrari's philosophy. N.M. finds himself more and more distant from the FIAT way of doing things which does not allow rapid development in the vein of the F40 and eventually hands in his resignation

[date unknown] - Design of F121A engine with 200 HP/litre

14 Aug 1988 - Enzo Ferrari dies at the age of 90 and with him any real reason for Materazzi to come back to work for the company due to the increasing level of FIAT intervention

1989 - Technical Director & General Director at Cagiva's Reparto Corse (Varese) for the C589 which was involved in the 500cc world motorcycle championship. Riders were Lawson, Mamola, Kocinski, Chandler, Barros

June 1991 to June 1993 - Technical Director at Bugatti Automobili (Campogalliano, MO)

[more precise start date required, also need to list the various work & achievements]

1993 to 1995 - Technical consultant for design of industrial diesel engines for various companies

1996 to 1997 - Technical Director at Laverda (Breganze, VI)

1998 to 1999 - Development of motorcycle engines for chinese companies

2000 to 2005 - Development of the Edonis car at B.Engineering (Campogalliano, MO)

2006 - Retirement

2008 - Move back to his family roots

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1) Faber est suae quisque fortunae.

Ciascuno è artefice della propria sorte.

Oggi intervengono fattori esterni per cui sono quest’ultimi a segnare la fortuna di un individuo, non certo le doti delle quali può essere dotato.

2) Frangar, non flectar

Mi spezzerò, ma non mi piegherò.

Questo motto sembrerebbe formulato per i componenti in carbonio o per quelli costruiti in materiali con una scarsa resilienza. Può anche essere la rappresentazione di qualche carattere umano che difficilmente si mostra disponibile a piegarsi al volere di qualche altro.

3) Nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte prodesse.

Non c’è libro così cattivo che in qualche sua parte non possa giovare.

Anche questa citazione (attribuita a Plinio il Giovane), in qualità di appassionato lettore mi è sembrata particolarmente veritiera.

4) Ubi maior, minor cessat

In presenza di uno più bravo, bisogna deporre le proprie armi!

Anche questo era valido al tempo dei romani ma oggi non è più esattamente così.