Biography|Stefano Domenicali — The Mugello Circuit Where Ferrari Let Him Run Race Days

Ferrari hired him for the accounts.

The racing education started here, at the circuit the company had owned since 1988.

Motor Sport Magazine recorded that in the early 1990s Domenicali used Ferrari's shareholding in Mugello to step out of the finance office.

He took licences as race director, steward and clerk of the course, working the circuit on weekends while keeping the weekday job at Maranello.

English Wikipedia dates the Mugello race-director stretch to 1992 through 1994 and notes DTM and other series among the events.

The Italian page adds that after the degree he moved from administration onto the development of this track.

Mugello sits in the hills above Scarperia, north of Florence, a 5.245-kilometre Grade 1 layout Ferrari still uses for testing.

The public gate on the SP503 is the face a visitor can stand in front of.

The finance graduate wanted the race team, not a lifetime in fiscal control.

Mugello was the bridge.

By 1995 he was head of personnel for the Gestione Sportiva.

By the end of 1996 he was team manager, the trackside job that put him next to Jean Todt as Michael Schumacher's Ferrari years began.

The later titles sit on other pins.

This one is the Tuscan circuit that got him out of the ledger.

Photo: Anna.Massini, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons