Biography|Stefano Domenicali — The Bologna Degree That Opened the Door at Maranello

The usual story jumps from Imola to Ferrari as if the factory hired a local boy on charm.

What Maranello hired in 1991 was a graduate in Economia e Commercio from the University of Bologna.

Formula One's corporate biography and the English and Italian Wikipedia pages all date the degree to that year.

Motor Sport Magazine later recorded that he sent the same CV across Italy's motor valley and that Ferrari was the firm that answered.

The Faculty of Economics sits on this square, Piazza Antonino Scaravilli, in the university quarter east of the Two Towers.

The porticoes here are the everyday face of the faculty, not a ceremonial hall.

He started in Ferrari's finance and administration offices, handling internal accounts with Fiat, the work his degree had trained him to do in any company.

The racing job came later, through Ferrari's ownership of the Mugello circuit.

Alma Mater has kept the link.

On 12 September 2025 the rector Giovanni Molari presented Domenicali with the Sigillum Magnum, the university's highest civil honour, at a Bologna Business School graduation in Piazza Maggiore.

The honour came thirty-four years after the first degree.

The pin stays on the faculty square where that degree was earned, not on the later ceremony.

Photo: FabioDuma, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons