A formation Eurofighter fighter aircraft with the prancing horse on the fuselage will fly over the starting grid on Sunday 13 September before the start of the race
For about 100 years the prancing horse indissolubly binds the stable Ferrari andair Force, a combination that has its historical roots during the First World War, with the exploits of the Ace of the Aces of aviation, the major Francesco Baracca.
For this reason, to celebrate the 1000th Grand Prix of the Ferrari team in Formula 1, on Sunday 13 September the Air Force will open the Tuscan GP Ferrari 1000 with the overflight of a hunting formation Euro Fighter which, just like it SPAD S.XIII of Baracca, show on the fuselage the rampant horse, a symbol that still today characterizes the flight departments of the Armed Forces that ensure the daily Defense of the airspace national and NATO.
In particular, these are Eurofighter interceptor fighters belonging to the 9th Flight Group of the 4th Wing of Grosseto and the 10th and 12th Flight Group of the 36th Wing of Gioia del Colle (BA).
Once again the link between the world of Formula 1 engines and the Air Force is renewed. Only on 6 September, in fact, the MB-339PAN aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori rolled out the Tricolor on the 2020 Italian Grand Prix in Monza just before the start of the race.
Engines and speed, but also technology, innovation and above all team spirit, key elements that unite the Flight Departments of the Italian Air Force and the stables of the 1 Formula.
The Prancing Horse
The rampant horse - silvery color on a red field, facing left and with its tail lowered - was the heraldic emblem of the "Piemonte Reale Cavalleria", one of the most prestigious departments of the Italian Army, where Francesco Baracca served at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Shortly thereafter, the young rider wanted to become an aviator and it was his love for horses that led him in the following years to choose to adopt, albeit with some variations, the same emblem as a symbol for his airplanes. The black prancing horse appeared for the first time on an airplane piloted by the ace at the beginning of 1917 and definitively became the insignia applied to the fuselage of the airplanes he piloted within the newly formed 91st Squadron.
On 19 June 1918 Francesco Baracca did not return from a war flight over Montello and his body was found only a few days later next to the burnt remains of the SPAD on which he was flying.
From that moment, it was the parents of the Asso who kept the memory alive and it was a meeting - on June 16, 1923 during the Savio Circuit - between Francesco Baracca's father, Enrico, and a young Enzo Ferrari (at the time at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo) to prepare the way for what will become a world legend.
That meeting was followed by the one between Francesco's mother and the Modenese builder, to whom the Countess Paolina Biancoli donated the precious emblem accompanying him with these words: “Ferrari, put my son's prancing horse on your cars. It will bring you luck ”.
“I still keep the photograph of Baracca, with the dedication of the parents with whom they entrust the emblem to me” - wrote Enzo Ferrari on 3 July 1985 to the Lughese historian Giovanni Manzoni - “The horse was and has remained black; I added the canary yellow background which is the color of Modena ”.
The Prancing Horse returned to appear as the emblem of the 91st in the 20s, to then receive a definitive consecration as the insignia of the 4th Wing of the Regia Aeronautica at the behest of Amedeo d'Aosta who then commanded it. The same emblem was also used for a period on Ducati motorcycles, at the request of the then designer Fabio Taglioni, a native of Lugo di Romagna. The prancing horse still flies on the tail rudder of the Eurofighters of the Italian Air Force and, as is known, runs on the Maranello cars.
