Ferrari Family Day 2010

Ferrari Family Day 2010

Two years ago, we attended our first Ferrari Family Day in Maranello. It's a biennial event organised by the company for family and close friends of its employees, basically an open day for visiting most of the factories and offices. The lastest edition took place last Saturday on the 2nd of October.

This year we asked to bring 2 families along with us during the visit. It was something that would interest most men, tolerable for the women with a spot of shopping (I spent a small fortune in the Ferrari Store), and quite long/painful for the children who would inevitably be tired/hungry etc. The Babies were happy to have their friends suffer along with them, so I think we had a tolerably good day.

Hub works in this building

One of the meeting rooms

Set aside the fact that Ferrari only sells cars (and souvenirs), Ferrari Family Day is a wonderful and magical day for all who has family working in this beautiful company. I've often said that Ferrari is a world of its own. And it is nice to know that if Hub had to spend so very many hours working, it should take place in a modern glass building with Japanese ponds, leather chairs in airy offices and a fabulous view of the most beautiful Ferraris fresh out of the assembly line. To give you an idea how nice it all was, one of the little girls who came for the visit started holding his hand at one point, telling him,

"I like you very much. You have a very nice office..."

Painting the cars

We had a difficult start to our day though, running late as usual and finding the public parking full full full. People were starting to park in Maranello itself and we had 2 families to meet at the gate...Then Hub thought to call his PA who kindly informed him that actually he had no need to look for parking space as he had parking reserved for him inside the company grounds.

Friday's lunch menu

Ferrari Canteen

That gave me time to do a spot of shopping as we parked just behind the canteen that became a makeshift Ferrari Store that day. The items were really expensive, Hub wanted to buy something for his teambuilding at Mugello (for this evening), but found that there was nothing that would fit into his budget. Then we started our visit - and within minutes managed to lose the Teenager for an hour or so. That boy is incorrigible.

Those things they weighed almost nothing...

This year they distributed free water, balloons, posters, Kinder chocolate and fruit juice. Not bad at all. For lunch we had pizza in a pizzeria nearby, though by the time we've covered the F1 part of the company we couldn't walk anymore. Luckily there were free shuttle buses that brought us back to the main offices.

Underside of a Ferrari

458 Italia

As usual there were many places in which photography was not allowed, in any case I was so busy chatting away, bumping into people I knew that I basically zapped through everything. Wouldn't recognise an industrial secret even if it should dance naked before me.

Vintage Ferraris

Which is my favourite part of the visit? Besides the shopping I enjoyed sneaking up to take a peep of Hub's office (but he had forgotten his keys so we couldn't admire the decoration) and I liked the new assembly line where we got to see a few finished cars. Engines etc could get a bit boring after a while no matter how powerful they are. I would have liked to taste their canteen food, heard it's eons better than the kids' and much cheaper too. :-)

The hospitality truck that you find at the races

Inside the truck with view of the Fiorano tracks

Oh, I also love the new hospitality truck. The ground floor had a dining area with bar, saw Alonso and Massa's private cabins on the 1st floor and the top floor had a lounge area with an open balcony. They also had publicity on the Ferrari Theme Park in Abu Dhabi. Really cool.