Franco Lini (b.1924 - d.1996)

Renowned motor sporting photo-journalist and special correspondent for the Italian periodical ‘Auto Italiana’, Franco Lini was born in Mantua, and went to school with the great racing champion, Tazio Nuvolari’s ill-fated young son. His two lifelong passions were for motor sport and attractive women. In his youth he became more interested in racing motor-cycles than in the family machine tool business, and running a modest motor-cycle magazine helped fund his racing. He first wrote about four-wheeled racing when a Milan newspaper asked him to report on the San Remo GP at Ospedaletti in the early 1950s. Two years later Lini broke his neck in a motorcycle crash and retired from racing to concentrate on writing. He became one of the first journalists to attend all Formula 1 races around the world and his reportage became very popular in Italy. No less a person than Enzo Ferrari was impressed by Lini’s knowledge, his contacts and his multi-lingual capabilities. Lini had been an outspoken critic of the Ferrari team’s direction, and late in 1966 Mr Ferrari appointed him Direttore Sportivo – team manager - to give the Scuderia a fresh new image, and to show he could do better. Franco Lini then ran Ferrari’s factory programmes in both Formula 1 and World Championship sports car racing through 1967.  

He was very close to team driver Lorenzo Bandini, but among his great recommendations at Ferrari was the hiring both Chris Amon and Jacky Ickx. He was devastated by the fiery death of Bandini in the 1967 Monaco GP, followed by F1 career-ending injuries to Michael Parkes in the Belgian GP at Spa. He stepped down from the Ferrari role at the end of that season, returning to writing and motor racing photography as the doyen of Italian race reporters. A lifelong heavy smoker, Franco Lini succumbed to lung cancer just short of his 73rd birthday.