Ferrari developed the 553 to contest the 1953 World Drivers' Championship, which was held to Formula Two regulations that year. The car was powered by the Lampredi inline-four engine, a unit that had been central to Ferrari's early-1950s Formula One programme. In the 553's configuration the engine displaced 2,497.56 cc and produced 260 PS at 7,200 rpm. The characteristic rounded bodywork and air-intake profile, which gave the car a shark-like visual identity, provided the foundation for the Squalo nickname that became inseparable from the model.
In its Formula Two configuration, the Ferrari 553 was campaigned in the 1953 World Championship by Umberto Maglioli and Piero Carini. The car made its race debut at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on 13 September 1953 for the Italian Grand Prix, which was the final round of that season's championship. The car did not score championship points in its debut year.
When the World Championship returned to full Formula One regulations in 1954, Ferrari updated the 553 to F1 specification and the car became the team's front-line Grand Prix challenger. It competed in six World Championship Grands Prix across the two seasons with ten individual entries recorded in total. Its sole points-scoring result was a victory for Mike Hawthorn at the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix, held at the Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona. That win remains the 553's only championship race victory.
In 1955, Ferrari developed a revised version of the 553 that was designated the Ferrari 555. The updates concentrated on the suspension: the front transverse leaf-springs were replaced by new helical springs, and the rear lower leaf-spring arrangement was changed to an upper configuration. A five-speed gearbox replaced the original four-speed unit. Engine capacity and power output were unchanged — the Lampredi inline-four continued to produce 260 PS at 7,200 rpm from the same 2,497.56 cc displacement. The revised and further extended rounded bodywork prompted a new nickname for the updated car: Supersqualo, or Super Shark, distinguishing it visually from the original Squalo profile.
The 555 Supersqualo first raced at the Bordeaux Grand Prix on 24 April 1955. During the 1956 season Peter Collins continued to race the 555 in selected events while the remainder of the Scuderia Ferrari squad had transitioned to the Lancia-Ferrari D50, which the team had absorbed following Lancia's withdrawal from Grand Prix racing.
The Ferrari 553 Squalo occupies a defined place in Ferrari's Grand Prix lineage as a transitional design bridging the Formula Two and Formula One eras of the early World Championship. Its competitive record was modest, anchored by a single Grand Prix win at the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix through Mike Hawthorn, but the Squalo nickname and its recognisable bodywork form made the car a vivid period emblem. The 553 also served as the direct technical ancestor of the 555 Supersqualo, completing a coherent evolutionary line through Ferrari's Lampredi-engined single-seater programme of the early and mid-1950s.
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