In the August/September issue of L'Orologio (on newsstands today), we published an interview with Jack Heuer, Honorary President of the watchmaker of the same name, whom we met at Le Castellet during the presentation of the book 'Dream Machines driven by Generous Heart', produced to support the cause of Save the Children, a major global children's rights charity, at the same time as the presentation of the new Grand Carrera. We asked him a series of 'enthusiast' questions, trying to dig into his memories and retrace some important phases of his life.
The following is an excerpt.
D. How did your adventure with Ferrari begin?
R. TAG Heuer and Ferrari started working together in the 1970s. All the negotiations, the study of the contracts, was between myself and Pietro Lardi Ferrari. When we had reached a practically complete agreement on all the points of the contract, only then would we go to Enzo Ferrari and sign everything with him.
D. What was Enzo Ferrari like in everyday life?
R. He was not an easy person, but everyone knows that. With me, however, he was always particularly kind and accommodating, with an almost paternal affection. Only later did I discover that I was the exact same age as his son Dino, to whose memory he was very attached. Evidently he saw in me a boy of the same age as his son.
D. Enzo Ferrari was one of the first in Formula 1 to understand the importance of precision timing.
R. Yes, precision timekeeping was very important to him, sometimes he even behaved maniacally in this regard.
D. Can you give us an example?
R. He was convinced that the French were 'cheating' with timing during the 24 Hours of Le Mans. You have to think that 40 years ago there were no computers to check times and laps done. At Le Mans they raced during the day and at night. Right in the dark, perhaps at three or four in the morning, it was enough to take advantage of a moment of distraction to score a car a lap and thus give it a good lead, or even victory.
D. And what countermeasure did you take?
R. We made a machine that could time and keep track of the laps of several cars simultaneously. We called it, not surprisingly, 'Le Mans'.
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