History of Ferrari

1929 inception and Enzo Anselmo Ferrari

In the beginning, nobody had any idea that Enzo Ferrari would have such an impact on the world of auto racing. In 1929, he founded Scuderia Ferrari, a sponsor for some of Italy's best amateur racers, in Modena. Enzo had done some racing himself in various CMN and Alfa Romeo automobiles, and with financial support from two textile heirs built Ferrari into a force of nearly forty drivers. The team quickly began dominating races, with Enzo often leading the pack. In 1933, the car company's business began to falter, and the in-house racing division was cut. The company had seen Enzo's success, however, and the Scuderia Ferrari was quickly named Alfa's unofficial team, with new models being released to their drivers. In 1938, the company hired Enzo to head the racing division, and he quickly absorbed Alfa Romeo's knowledge and used it to build his own car, the 125 Sport.

After Alfa Romeo was absorbed by Mussolini's fascist government during World War II, the Scuderia Ferrari was in dire financial straits. Without the backing of the Alfa factories, the drivers could not keep up with the cutting-edge automobiles on the track. To compete, Enzo designed and built his own car, a tube-frame chassis racer with a 1.5 L engine that quickly proved it was up to par on the track, winning the Grand Prix of Rome just 14 days after it officially debuted. Enzo's cars combined top-flight performance with a gorgeous sense of aerodynamic design, making them extremely coveted luxury items. As the racing club continued to struggle, Ferrari decided to swallow his pride and release his babies outside the nest, making them available to other racing clubs and private drivers. And thus, the legend of Ferrari was born. In addition to their sports cars, they also began competing in F1 racing in 1950, with the higher speed limits giving Enzo and his engineers an excuse to push their cars even farther. The company went through a number of ups and downs in the intervening years, with an iconoclastic and quick-tempered Ferrari ousting a number of his most important workers in 1961, as development of the iconic 250 GTO was in progress. But Enzo's love of racing and never-say-die attitude kept the company afloat through thick and thin, building not only high-end racing machines but also road cars that boasted the classic Ferrari styling without the horsepower. As the company grew, they battled challenges from the Shelby Cobra and the Porsche 908, both looking to seize the crown, but Ferrari maintained their dominance on the track. In the 1970s, the 312PB model crushed all competitors, dominating the World Sportscar Championships. The good times were not to last, however, as the company finally retired from sports car racing to focus on F1 competition. In addition, they began creating "supercars," high-end rides with bleeding-edge technology that retailed for hundreds of thousands of dollars and rapidly became sought-after collector's items.

Enzo Ferrari died in 1988, with the brand of cars he ushered into the world fully established as the top of the line. The company is now primarily owned by Italian automobile company FIAT, who have ensured that the legend of Ferrari will live on. The recent announcement that the company will provide all of the cars for the 2008-2009 A1 Grand Prix brings the company back where they started - the racetrack.