David Rosenthal

But by this point in time, Alfa had been nationalized by the fascist Italian state, by Mussolini.

So he is Italy's official national racing team.

There's this one problem, though.

which is that Alfa got out of the racing business for a reason because Hitler is coming to power in Germany.

And one of Hitler's most, you know, kind of important national agenda items is making sure that his German auto industry is

is the best and that he proves it on the racetrack, just like, you know, the Olympics.

So throughout the rest of the 1930s, the German state is supporting Mercedes and Auto Union, which would go on to become Audi today.

And their cars are just dominating European Grand Prix racing.

So Enzo and Ferrari are like sent out there, you know, by Alfa and the Italians to compete.

But it's a fool's errand.

And so in 1938, Alfa and Mussolini kind of fed up with losing.

They actually acquire the Scuderia Ferrari and remake it, you know, as part of Alfa Romeo into this official sort of government entity.

Yeah.

I mean, at the end of the day, this is just rearranging deck chairs because...

The war is coming.

So the very next year, Hitler invades Poland and World War II begins.

Needless to say, European automobile racing is on hold indefinitely.

During this period, Enzo gets into a fight with Alfa Romeo management and manages to get himself fired.

Well, I mean, you know, he gave them up to the Italian government, essentially.

Yep.