A.L.F.A., as the company was originally named, entered motor racing almost immediately after its 1910 foundation. Works drivers Franchini and Ronzoni competed in the 1911 Targa Florio with two 24 HP models. The marque's first recorded success came in 1913 when Nino Franchini finished second in the Parma-Poggio di Berceto hillclimb with a 40/60 HP. Giuseppe Merosi designed a purpose-built Grand Prix car in 1914. In 1920, Giuseppe Campari won at Mugello with a 40/60 HP; a young Enzo Ferrari finished second in the Targa Florio that same year. Ugo Sivocci won the 1923 Targa Florio and was credited with establishing the green cloverleaf on white background as the marque's racing symbol. Antonio Ascari took second in that race.
In 1923, Vittorio Jano left FIAT for Alfa Romeo, beginning the most successful period in the company's racing history. His engines gave the marque competitive power for over a decade. In 1925, Alfa Romeo triumphed at the inaugural Automobile World Championship, winning the European Grand Prix at Spa and the Italian Grand Prix at Monza with the P2.
The P3, or Tipo B, arrived in 1932 and was widely considered the world's first true single-seater Grand Prix car. Jano's design won its debut race at the Italian Grand Prix driven by Tazio Nuvolari, then took five further Grands Prix that year between Nuvolari and Rudolf Caracciola. In 1933, Alfa Romeo faced insolvency and transferred works racing operations to Enzo Ferrari's team, Scuderia Ferrari, but the P3 continued to win, including the Italian and Spanish Grands Prix.
Louis Chiron won the 1934 French Grand Prix for Alfa, but by then the newly emerged German Silver Arrows from Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union were beginning to dominate. The P3's most famous late victory came at the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, where Tazio Nuvolari drove what many observers regarded as the greatest individual drive in Grand Prix history, beating the superior German machinery against strong expectation.
Alfa Romeo's prewar sportscar record was equally impressive. Tazio Nuvolari won the 1930 Mille Miglia in a 6C 1750, famously switching off his headlights in the final kilometres to allow rival Achille Varzi to believe he was safely clear, then overtaking at the last moment with the lights off. Alfa Romeo cars won the Targa Florio six consecutive times in the 1930s and took the Mille Miglia every year from 1928 to 1938, with the single exception of 1931.
The 8C 2300 achieved an extraordinary run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning in 1931, 1932, 1933, and 1934. In 1938, Clemente Biondetti won the Mille Miglia in an 8C 2900B Corto Spider.
From 1933, when factory resources were strained, racing operations were largely entrusted to Scuderia Ferrari, which ran Alfa Romeo machinery on the company's behalf. Alfa Romeo bought the Scuderia Ferrari shares in 1937 and from 1 January 1938 transferred official racing activity to Alfa Corse, a newly formed internal racing department housed near the Alfa factory at Portello, Milan. Enzo Ferrari disagreed with this restructuring and was dismissed by Alfa in 1939, subsequently founding his own company.
Alfa Romeo's prewar racing programme established the marque's identity as a serious Grand Prix constructor. The combination of Jano's engineering, drivers of the calibre of Nuvolari, Campari, Varzi, and Chiron, and competitive machinery capable of challenging even the state-subsidised German teams at their peak, placed Alfa Romeo among the defining constructors of the interwar period. After the Second World War, the company returned to racing with the 158 Alfetta, which had been hidden from German occupiers during the conflict, and dominated the first two seasons of the Formula One World Championship in 1950 and 1951.
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