De Tomaso: Close to him
Editedy by Vita di Stile
Words by Manuel Bordini
Photos (in black/white) by Federico Vandone Dell’Acqua
The entrepreneurial life of Alejandro De Tomasohas been the subject of various writings, but very little has been said about Alessandro.
When we talk about De Tomaso, we immediately think about the unscrupulous man ready to take advantage of whatever might occurred. However, there are significant errorsin this assumption, but,in order to really understand them, we have to stop and figure out who Alejandro De Tomaso really was. The Argentinian born racing driver and industrialist came to Italy with the intention of rebuilding his life.He chooses Italy, not for sentimental reasons, but, becauseitrepresented his possibility to reach the success. Thus, he made a name for himself as a driver and he established a partnership with Osca, the firm started by Maseratibrothers.
Racing represented an important part also of his romantic life, indeed he married an American race driver, Elisabeth Haskell. The first years in Modena were the toughest for the couple. He previously was rich and he wanted to get back to be rich: firstly the racings, then the construction of cars were necessary means to emerge again. Elisabeth came from aU.S. industrial middle class,owner of a listed company, the Rowan Industries, Ford supplier. This connection represented a great opportunity for Alejandro. However, Elisabeth’s family did not view highly her passion for racing and they tried to hurdle her so that they decided to leave her penniless, in order to oblige her to come back to The States. She did not give up and Isabella, as she was called in Italy, dealt with her husband’s character with courtesy and composure. Alessandro maintained that there were lots of opportunitiesin Italy, and he sought to find a way to have success.
He was very ambitious: his target was Gianni Agnelli, although he did notappreciate him, he envied his power. For that reason, he tried to arouse his curiosity, frequenting the same places, trying to be with him. He studied“The Lawyer”, he challenges him, he represented his objective to reach and maybe to overcome.Nevertheless, his most influential friendships, those fundamental to realise his dream of greatness and richness, which wasn’t exclusively an entrepreneurial dream, were overseas.
De Tomaso career was characterized and influenced by his personal relations, indeed, he wasn’t an entrepreneur tout-court, but he cravedto do things. He wasn’t interested in the entrepreneurial strategy, the work on product, the continuing improvement and the methodological and rigorous approach. Alessandro had the idea, he predisposed the conditions in order to make things happened, then, the others had to solve problems.
De Tomaso always studied people in front of him, he was also a deeply expert of Popes biographies; Franco Bernabei, his unique official race driver, remembers his ability in framing the spokesman. He viewed highly only few people, and with the he strove to be unpleasant.
Moreover, Franco remembers him as a stubborn man, who didn’t focus only on the objective, but on the strategy. He was very ambitious, a good man, a master of life, who taught how to rule, how to be a leader. The racing times were the toughest because of the lack of a consistent budget, preventing the company to invest in the quality. The entrepreneurial success was the means to get back to be rich.
De Tomaso and Rivolta’s families used to spend lots of summers together. Piero Rivolta remembers Alessandro’s willingness to stress the relationships, whatever type of relationship,up to the breaking point to deeply discover people around him. He did not care about the others’ perception of him, his intelligence was out of question, his experiment was about measuring the others’ intelligence and resistance ability.
He defined himself as American, but probably, it was only a marketing strategy. In the U.S. he knew he would have has less chances than in Italy, there were too many rules to respect. Indeed, the Italy of that yearswas considered as a sort of Eldorado, in which lots of things were possible.
De Tomaso, wanted to be unkind, it was his way of being. But deeply, he was a good man, who fought with life to emerge every time more, as recalled byFranco with touching feelings.