Enzo Ferrari spent the 1920s as a racing driver and later team manager for Alfa Romeo, founding Scuderia Ferrari in 1929 as a racing team. Initially serving amateur drivers, the team became Alfa Romeo's unofficial factory representative after the automaker withdrew from racing in 1933. Scuderia Ferrari fielded drivers including Antonio Ascari, Giuseppe Campari, and Tazio Nuvolari, winning 144 of its 225 races between 1929 and 1937 before being absorbed back into Alfa Romeo. Enzo left in 1939 following disagreements with management. A noncompete agreement with Alfa Romeo prevented use of the Ferrari name for four years, so the new company was called Auto Avio Costruzioni. Its sole pre-war product, the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, raced once before World War II began. Wartime production of aircraft engines and machine tools provided the capital needed to continue. Factory relocation to Maranello in 1943 survived Allied bombing, and Ferrari remains there today. The Ferrari name was adopted in 1945.
The 125 S, powered by a new V12 engine, was Ferrari's first car and won many races in 1947. Early victories including the 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans and 1951 Carrera Panamericana established the brand's reputation. Ferrari became a public company in 1960. The first series-produced car was the 250 GT Coupe, beginning in 1958. Fiat purchased 50 percent of Ferrari's shares in 1969 after negotiations with Ford collapsed in 1963. Enzo Ferrari approved the F40 — the company's first genuine supercar — before his death in 1988, when Fiat expanded its stake to 90 percent. Under Luca di Montezemolo's chairmanship from 1991 to 2014, Ferrari's road car profitability grew nearly tenfold through expanding the model range while carefully limiting total production. The SF90 Stradale, introduced in 2019, was Ferrari's first series-production car with plug-in hybrid architecture.
Scuderia Ferrari is the oldest and most successful team in Formula One history. Since 1952 it has fielded fifteen champion drivers and won sixteen Constructors' Championships, accumulating more race victories, podium finishes, pole positions, fastest laps, and points than any other team. The team's first Formula One victory came at the 1951 British Grand Prix. Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Phil Hill, and John Surtees were among the title-winning drivers of the 1950s and 1960s. After a lean period in the late 1960s and 1970s — partially remedied by Niki Lauda's 1975 and 1977 championships and Jody Scheckter's 1979 title — Ferrari's most dominant modern era came with Michael Schumacher. After joining in 1996, Schumacher delivered five consecutive drivers' championships from 2000 to 2004, accompanied by six consecutive constructors' titles beginning in 1999. The 2004 season saw Ferrari lose only three races. Kimi Raikkonen won Ferrari's most recent drivers' title in 2007; the team's most recent constructors' titles came in 2007 and 2008.
Ferrari began competing in sports car racing in 1947. By 1957, just ten years into competition, the company had won three World Sportscar Championships, seven Mille Miglia victories, and two Le Mans victories. Ferrari won Le Mans for six consecutive years in the early 1960s before Ford broke the streak in 1966. The company withdrew from factory sports car competition in 1973. Ferrari returned to prototype racing in 2023 with the 499P for the FIA World Endurance Championship, partnered with AF Corse. One of the 499P entries carried number 50 in reference to the fifty years since a works Ferrari last competed in endurance racing. The 499P won the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, ending Toyota Gazoo Racing's five-year winning streak, and repeated the victory at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2025, Ferrari secured both the Manufacturers' and Drivers' titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Ferrari's Prancing Horse symbol — a rearing black horse on a yellow background — originated from the emblem of World War I Italian flying ace Francesco Baracca. Baracca's mother suggested Enzo Ferrari adopt it after his 1923 victory in Ravenna; the symbol was first used by the racing team in 1932. Rosso corsa (racing red) became closely associated with Ferrari because it was the required national colour for Italian racing cars; even after livery regulations changed, Scuderia Ferrari continued racing in red. Ferrari maintains exclusivity by limiting production below customer demand, ranking purchasers internally by loyalty, and prohibiting resale within the first year of ownership. The company was named the world's strongest brand by Brand Finance in 2019.