The Quadrifoglio Story: The iconic Alfa Romeo symbol

 The Quadrifoglio badge on Alfa's is an iconic badge and synonymous to Mercedes's AMG and BMW's M badge. Any Alfa sporting the Quadrifoglio(QV) badge is widely accepted to be a fast Alfa but the Alfa badge is not like any other badge. The badge itself is a lucky charm for Alfa and has been instrumental in creating the Ferrari brand.

We all understand the brash Italian character of the great Enzo Ferrari and as of today speed and Ferrari are very good friends, but along time ago Ferrari did have another friend by the name Ugo Sivocci. When Mr. Ferrari was young, poverty had a very good grip on him, so much that he often used to dine at Sivocci's place. Sivocci who was working for a small automaker CMN, had promised that he would find a job for Enzo at CMN. As soon as Sivocci had the opening he offered it to Enzo, a move that would alter the course of the automotive world forever. Sivocci put Enzo behind the wheels of high speed cars and awakened the racer in him.

A few years later Enzo was hired by Alfa Romeo as a racing driver and Enzo extended the same favor to Sivocci. Moving to the more prestigious brand and being among the four racers of Alfa Romeos, first factory racing team, along side Giuseppe Campari and Antonio Ascari, Sivocci and Enzo were doing wonders in the Alfa team. 

Ugo Sivocci Racing at Targa Florio

Although, Sivocci was the fastest man, he could never secure the podium, earning him the reputation as a driver who never had Lady Fortune on his side. In 1923, Targa Florio would be different, Sivocci who was fed up with his bad luck, painted a lucky charm on his car, a Four -leaf clover, inside a diamond. Sivocci 

went on to win the race and this would go on to become the most successful team of the event with all its drivers finishing in the top 10. He not only won the Targa Florio, but also won several smaller races notably the RL Targa Florio.

The Alfa Romeo Team at Targa Florio

During the same year, Sivocci was out in a practice lap of the Italian Grand Prix in Alfa's latest car the P1 at Monza and just as he approached the Curva Parabolica, His car veered off the track and crashed killing Sivocci. Later that day Alfa would announce that it was withdrawing from the 1923 Grand Prix.

Alfa later changed the Quadrifoglio symbol to fit the Four leaves in a triangle as a mark of the loss of Sivocci. 

Even to this day, the QV badge is an iconic symbol and has been a lucky charm for the legendary carmaker and as for Enzo Ferrari, Sivocci's loss was too much for him to recover from and hence in a few years Ferrari quit from the Alfa team to start his own racing team Scuderia Ferrari in 1929.