Ferrari takes on key role in the COVID-19 combat

F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Ferrari are continuing their efforts in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, having offered their help and expertise on different fronts in recent weeks.

After Italy has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the middle of March, the Agnelli family who control the Ferrari Formula 1 team and road car business, as well as the FIAT Chrysler company, donated €10 million and offered 150 ventilators and vehicles to the Italian Red Cross to help with the crisis.

Although Ferrari suspended all its operations including its F1 activity and road car manufacturing, the work at its Maranello plant continues for a specific task. The fabled Italian manufacturer announced on Friday that it has started to produce respirator valves and fittings for protective masks at its Maranello plant as one of its initiatives in support of health workers treating coronavirus patients.

“In the next few days, Ferrari plans to manufacture several hundred items of equipment that are already being distributed by some of the companies involved, with the coordination of the Italian Civil Protection, to various Italian hospitals including those in Bergamo, Genoa, Modena, and Sassuolo as well as to health workers in the town of Medicina, near Bologna,” read the Ferrari statement.

The Italian company, along with its clients have raised €1 million with which it aims to help the healthcare system of the Modena province. The company will continue its fundraiser initiative to support the fight against the COVID-19 virus. The initial €1 million funds have already been made available to Modena, the birthplace of Enzo Ferrari with the Modena’s Azienda Unita Sanitaria Locale (AUSL) becoming the primary beneficiary of the fundraising efforts.

Ferrari has also recently donated an ambulance to AUSL Modena that is fully active and in daily use by the emergency department for all COVID-19 related patients.