Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and began to produce its current line of road cars in 1947. Ferrari became a public company in 1960, and from 1963 to 2014, it was a subsidiary of Fiat S.p.A. It was spun off from Fiat's successor entity, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, in 2016. The company currently offers a large model range which includes several supercars, grand tourers, and one SUV. Many early Ferraris, dating to the 1950s and 1960s, count among the most expensive cars ever sold at auction.
Throughout its history, the company has been noted for its continued participation in racing, especially in Formula One, where its team, Scuderia Ferrari, is the series' single oldest and most successful. Scuderia Ferrari has raced since 1929, first in Grand Prix events and later in Formula One, where it holds many records. Historically, Ferrari was also highly active in sports car racing, where its cars took many wins in races such as the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as several overall victories in the World Sportscar Championship. Scuderia Ferrari fans, commonly called tifosi, are known for their passion and loyalty to the team.
Ferrari is one of the world's strongest brands, and it maintains a brand image built around racing heritage, luxury, and exclusivity. The company is publicly traded, with significant ownership, by Piero Ferrari, and Exor N.V. As of May 2023, Ferrari is also one of the largest car manufacturers by market capitalisation, with a value of approximately US$85.5 billion.[7]
History
Early history
Enzo Ferrari, formerly a salesman and racing driver for Alfa Romeo, founded Scuderia Ferrari, a racing team, in 1929. Originally intended to service gentleman drivers and other amateur racers, Alfa Romeo's withdrawal from racing in 1933, combined with Enzo's connections within the company, turned Scuderia Ferrari into its unofficial representative on the track.[8] Alfa Romeo supplied racing cars to Ferrari, who eventually amassed some of the best drivers of the 1930s and won many races before the team's liquidation in 1937.[8][9]
Late in 1937, Scuderia Ferrari was liquidated and absorbed into Alfa Romeo,[8] but Enzo's disagreements with upper management caused him to leave in 1939.
Motorsport
Since the company's beginnings, Ferrari has been involved in motorsport. Through its works team, Scuderia Ferrari, it has competed in a range of categories including Formula One and sports car racing, though the company has also worked in partnership with other teams.
Grand Prix and Formula One racing
Scuderia Ferrari has been continuously active since the very beginning of Formula One: since 1952 it has fielded fifteen champion drivers, won sixteen Constructors' Championships, and accumulated more race victories, 1–2 finishes, podiums, pole positions, fastest laps and points than any other team in F1 history.[35][36]
The earliest Ferrari entity, Scuderia Ferrari, was created in 1929—ten years before the founding of Ferrari proper—as a Grand Prix racing team. It was affiliated with automaker Alfa Romeo, for whom Enzo had worked in the 1920s. Alfa Romeo supplied racing cars to Ferrari, which the team then tuned and adjusted to their desired specifications.
Road cars
The first vehicle made with the Ferrari name was the 125 S. Only two of this small two-seat sports/racing V12 car were made. In 1949, the 166 Inter was introduced marking the company's move into the grand touring road car market. The first 166 Inter was a four-seat (2+2) berlinetta coupé with bodywork designed by Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. Road cars became the bulk of Ferrari sales. Early Ferrari road cars typically featured bodywork designed and customised by independent coachbuilders such as Vignale, Touring, Ghia, Pininfarina, Scaglietti, and Bertone.
Ferrari's early road cars were typically two-seat front-engined V12s. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Ferrari expanded into mid-engined layouts and smaller engine configurations through models developed under the Dino name, later introducing mid-engined flat-12 and V8 Ferrari-branded road cars.[25] The mid-engine layout has continued to be used for many of Ferrari's sports cars to the present day.
Starting in the 2010s, Ferrari increasingly relied on in-house design from the Centro Stile Ferrari for road-car styling, while continuing occasional collaborations on limited projects.
Identity
The "Prancing Horse"
Ferrari's symbol is the "Prancing Horse" (, lit. 'little prancing horse'), a prancing black horse on a yellow background. Minor details of its appearance have changed many times, but its shape has remained consistent: it is always presented either as a shield, with the Italian tricolour above the horse and the initials SF ("Scuderia Ferrari") below; or as a rectangle, replacing "SF" with the word "Ferrari" rendered in the company's trademark typeface.[87]
Enzo Ferrari offered an account of the horse's origins. In his story, after a 1923 victory in Ravenna, the family of Francesco Baracca, a deceased flying ace who painted the emblem on his airplane, paid him a visit. Paolina de Biancoli, Francesco's mother, suggested that Ferrari adopt the horse as a good luck charm: he accepted the request, and the Prancing Horse was first used by his racing team in 1932, applied to its Alfa Romeo 8C with the addition of a canary yellow background—the "colour of Modena", Enzo's hometown.[87][9]
Corporate affairs
In 1963, Enzo Ferrari was approached by the Ford Motor Company about a possible buy out.[112] Ford audited Ferrari's assets but legal negotiations and talks were unilaterally cut off by Ferrari when he realized that the deal offered by Ford would not enable him to stay at the helm of the company racing program. Henry Ford II consequently directed his racing division to negotiate with Lotus, Lola, and Cooper to build a car capable of beating Ferrari on the world endurance circuit, eventually resulting in the production of the Ford GT40 in 1964.
As the Ford deal fell through, FIAT approached Ferrari with a more flexible proposal and purchased controlling interests in the company in 1969. Enzo Ferrari retained a 10% share, which is currently owned by his son Piero Lardi Ferrari.
Ferrari has an internally managed merchandising line that licences many products bearing the Ferrari brand, including eyewear, pens, pencils, electronic goods, perfume, cologne, clothing, high-tech bicycles, watches, cell phones, and laptop computers.
Ferrari also runs a museum, the Museo Ferrari in Maranello, which displays road and race cars and other items from the company's history.[113]
See also
- Automotive industry in Italy
- List of automobile manufacturers of Italy
- List of companies of Italy
- List of Ferrari competition cars
- List of Ferrari engines
- List of Ferrari road cars
- Scuderia Ferrari
General references
- Adler, Dennis, Ferrari: The Road from Maranello. Random House, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4000-6463-2.
External links
References
- History of Ferrari logo: meaning and evolution LogoHeritage, retrieved 31 May 2016^
- Ferrari SpA Direzione e stabilimento Ferrari Corporate^
- Ferrari 2024 Annual Report (Form 20-F) US Securities and Exchange Commission, 21 February 2025, retrieved 25 February 2025