Enzo Ferrari established Scuderia Ferrari on 16 November 1929 following a dinner in Bologna, where he secured the financial backing of textile heirs Augusto and Alfredo Caniato and amateur racer Mario Tadini. The team's initial purpose was to enter amateur drivers in races using Alfa Romeo machinery. At its peak in the early 1930s, the Scuderia managed more than forty drivers, including celebrated figures such as Tazio Nuvolari, Giuseppe Campari, Achille Varzi, and Louis Chiron. Ferrari himself raced until the birth of his first son Dino in 1932.
The distinctive prancing horse emblem first appeared at the 1932 24 Hours of Spa in Belgium, on a two-car team of Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spiders that finished first and second. The symbol had belonged to Italian World War I flying ace Francesco Baracca; his parents, close acquaintances of Enzo Ferrari, suggested Ferrari adopt it as the team's logo for good fortune.
When Alfa Romeo withdrew from racing due to financial difficulties in 1933, Scuderia Ferrari effectively became Alfa's de facto works team. This arrangement lasted until 1938, when Alfa Romeo absorbed the Scuderia into its own factory racing division, Alfa Corse. Ferrari disagreed with the policy change, was dismissed in 1939, and subsequently founded Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari. Restricted by a four-year non-compete clause from using the Ferrari name on race cars, he designed the Tipo 815, driven by Alberto Ascari in the 1940 Mille Miglia before World War II halted racing.
After rebuilding his factory in Maranello following wartime bombing, Enzo Ferrari constructed the 12-cylinder Tipo 125, which debuted at the 1948 Italian Grand Prix. The Ferrari 166 MM brought immediate international success in sports car racing: victories at the Mille Miglia and the 24 Hours of Le Mans arrived in 1949, the latter being Ferrari's first attempt at the event. This unprecedented streak demonstrated Ferrari's ability to produce winning racing cars from scratch in a war-ravaged Italy.
When the FIA Formula One World Championship commenced in 1950, Ferrari entered and has never missed a season since. Alberto Ascari delivered back-to-back Drivers' Championships in 1952 and 1953, establishing Ferrari as the sport's dominant force in its early years. The team also won its first Constructors' title under the championship structure as it matured.
Ferrari's Formula One history spans distinct competitive eras. Juan Manuel Fangio drove for the team in 1956, adding a Drivers' title. Mike Hawthorn brought Ferrari its first championship in a season-long fight in 1958, though the title was tinged with tragedy following the death of teammate Peter Collins. Phil Hill became the first American world champion driving for Ferrari in 1961, the same year the team won the Constructors' title. John Surtees added another Drivers' Championship in 1964, partly through a controversial finale in which Enzo Ferrari entered his cars under American colours to protest Italian racing authorities.
After a difficult period through the late 1960s and early 1970s, Niki Lauda reinvigorated Ferrari with back-to-back title challenges, winning the championship in 1975 and narrowly losing a repeat title in 1976 following his near-fatal accident at the Nurburgring. Lauda won again for Ferrari in 1977. Jody Scheckter took the 1979 Drivers' title, the last Ferrari champion for two decades.
The Schumacher era from 1999 to 2004 represents the most dominant stretch in Ferrari's Formula One history. Under team principal Jean Todt, technical director Ross Brawn, and designer Rory Byrne, Michael Schumacher won five consecutive Drivers' Championships (2000 through 2004), while Ferrari simultaneously claimed six consecutive Constructors' titles. Schumacher accumulated 72 Grand Prix victories with the team over his decade at Maranello. Kimi Raikkonen's 2007 Drivers' title, secured on the final lap of the final race of the season, is the team's most recent championship success with a driver. The most recent Constructors' title came in 2008.
Ferrari's legacy in endurance and sports car racing equals its Formula One pedigree. Ferrari cars won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright nine times in the classic era, including six consecutive victories from 1960 to 1965. The team won the World Sportscar Championship six times in the 1950s and 1960s while simultaneously competing in Formula One, an achievement made more remarkable by the limited resources of post-war Italy.
The "Ford vs. Ferrari" battle of the mid-1960s, sparked when Enzo Ferrari rejected a Ford takeover bid in 1963, brought unprecedented American investment into international motorsport. Ford's GT40 programme ultimately wrested Le Mans victory from Ferrari in 1966, but the rivalry elevated the global stature of endurance racing.
After a fifty-year absence from prototype racing, Ferrari returned to the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2023 with the Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar. At the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, the No. 51 car driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi delivered Ferrari's first Le Mans overall victory since 1965. Ferrari repeated the achievement in 2024 and 2025, winning the 2025 World Manufacturers' and Drivers' Championships.
The team derives its Scuderia name from the Italian word for a stable kept for racing horses, a fitting reference for a team whose prancing horse badge has become one of the most recognised symbols in world sport. Racing in rosso corsa — Italy's national racing red — since 1929, Ferrari departed from tradition only briefly for the final two races of the 1964 season, when Enzo Ferrari entered his cars under American colours as a protest.
The team's passionate fanbase, known universally as the tifosi, regards the Italian Grand Prix at Monza as Ferrari's home race. The Fiorano Circuit adjacent to Ferrari's Maranello factory, built in 1972, serves as the team's private test track. The 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello marked Ferrari's 1000th Formula One race start.
Nine drivers have won the World Drivers' Championship with Ferrari: Alberto Ascari (1952, 1953), Juan Manuel Fangio (1956), Mike Hawthorn (1958), Phil Hill (1961), John Surtees (1964), Niki Lauda (1975, 1977), Jody Scheckter (1979), Michael Schumacher (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004), and Kimi Raikkonen (2007). The team's driver lineup for the 2026 season comprises Charles Leclerc and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who joined from Mercedes.
As the only constructor to have competed in every Formula One World Championship season since 1950, Scuderia Ferrari occupies a singular position in motorsport history. Its 16 Constructors' titles and 15 Drivers' Championships stand as unmatched records. Beyond statistics, Ferrari embodies the romantic ideal of Italian racing passion — a factory team that has endured financial crises, regulatory battles, internal controversies, and the full arc of technological change over seven decades while remaining a defining presence in every arena it has entered.