Alfa Romeo acquired the shares of the Scuderia Ferrari in 1937, transferring official racing activity to Alfa Corse from 1 January 1938. Enzo Ferrari disagreed with this policy change and was dismissed by Alfa Romeo in 1939, subsequently founding Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari. An agreement with Alfa included the condition that he would not use the Ferrari name on cars for four years. The first true Ferrari cars, the Tipo 815 designed by Alberto Massimino, were driven by Alberto Ascari and the Marchese Lotario Rangoni Machiavelli di Modena in the 1940 Mille Miglia before World War II halted competition.
Ferrari moved its headquarters from Modena to Maranello in 1943. After rebuilding, the team constructed the 12-cylinder, 1.5 L Tipo 125, which competed at non-championship Grands Prix and made its debut at the 1948 Italian Grand Prix. A Fiorano Circuit test track was built on the Maranello site in 1972 and remains in use today.
Scuderia Ferrari has competed in every Formula One World Championship season since 1950, making it the oldest surviving team in the sport. The team did not enter the first-ever championship race, the 1950 British Grand Prix, due to a dispute with organisers over start money.
As a constructor, Ferrari holds a record 16 Constructors' Championships, the most recent won in 2008. The team also holds the record for the most Drivers' Championships with 15, won by nine drivers: Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher, and Kimi Räikkönen. Räikkönen's title in 2007 is the most recent for the team.
Michael Schumacher is the team's most successful driver. He joined Ferrari in 1996 and drove for them until his first retirement in 2006, winning five consecutive drivers' titles between 2000 and 2004 and 72 Grands Prix for the team. The team won consecutive constructors' titles between 1999 and 2004, marking that era as the most successful period in the team's history. The 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix marked Ferrari's 1000th Grand Prix in Formula One.
As a constructor, Ferrari has achieved 249 engine manufacturer wins, including one recorded with Scuderia Toro Rosso at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix and one Ferrari privateer win at the 1961 French Grand Prix by Giancarlo Baghetti.
Ferrari has supplied engines to other teams over the years, including Minardi (1991), Scuderia Italia (1992–1993), Sauber (1997–2005, badged as Petronas, and 2010–2025), Prost (2001, badged Acer), Red Bull Racing (2006), Spyker (2007), Scuderia Toro Rosso (2007–2013, 2016), Force India (2008), and Marussia (2014–2015). For the 2026 season, Ferrari supplies the Haas F1 Team and Cadillac. Cadillac signed a multi-year deal in December 2024 to use Ferrari engines and gearboxes until GM PPU develops an F1-ready power unit.
The drivers for the 2026 season are Charles Leclerc and seven-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton.
Team orders have provoked controversy at multiple points in Ferrari's history. At the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix, Gilles Villeneuve was leading Didier Pironi when the team showed the slow sign; Pironi was expected to hold position but instead passed Villeneuve, an act Villeneuve viewed as a betrayal. This feud is considered a contributory factor in Villeneuve's fatal accident in qualifying at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. At the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello — who had started from pole and led the first 70 laps — was instructed to yield to Michael Schumacher. Ferrari were subsequently fined $100,000 for breach of regulations and for bringing the sport into disrepute. At the 2010 German Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso passed Felipe Massa after the team communicated that Alonso was "faster than him," an exchange widely interpreted as a team order; Ferrari were fined the maximum penalty.
The team has competed in the tradition of rosso corsa, the national racing colour of Italy, throughout its history. The two exceptions were the final two races of the 1964 season — the United States Grand Prix and the Mexican Grand Prix — when Enzo Ferrari entered cars through the NART team in American national colours (white with blue lengthwise stripes) as a protest against Italian racing authorities. Ferrari won the 1964 World Championship with John Surtees in those colours.
The prancing horse logo was suggested by the parents of fallen World War I ace Francesco Baracca, who had used the symbol on his fighter plane, telling Enzo Ferrari it would bring him good luck.
Ferrari resisted commercial sponsorship for many years. It was not until 1977 that Fiat group logos appeared on the cars. Philip Morris International through its Marlboro brand became title sponsor at the end of the 1996 season, and the team was officially named Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro from the start of the 1997 season until the 2011 European Grand Prix, at which point the Marlboro name was removed following complaints from sponsorship regulators. Marlboro had first appeared as a minor sponsor in the 1984 season and became a major sponsor in 1993. The last explicit tobacco sponsorship on the car was at the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix. From 2018, Philip Morris International's Mission Winnow project appeared on the car and team clothing. On 24 April 2024, the team announced a multi-year title partnership with HP Inc., renaming the team Scuderia Ferrari HP from the 2024 Miami Grand Prix onwards.
In 1987, Ferrari considered abandoning Formula One for the American IndyCar series and used this threat as a bargaining tool with the FIA to prevent technical regulations from excluding V12 engines. A car, the Ferrari 637, had already been constructed. The FIA agreed and the IndyCar project was shelved. In 2009, it emerged that Ferrari held an FIA-sanctioned veto on technical regulations.
Ferrari won the overall World Sportscar Championship twelve times through the late 1940s to early 1970s. Ferrari cars won the Mille Miglia eight times, the Targa Florio seven times, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times in that era. Ferrari's sportscar programme included the Ferrari 166 S, 166 MM, 250 MM, 340 MM, 375 MM, 375 Plus, 410 S, and the Jano-powered 290 MM, 315 S, and 335 S, among others. The team claimed six of the first seven World Sportscar Championship titles.
In the first half of the 1960s, Ferrari achieved six consecutive overall wins at Le Mans from 1960 to 1965. The end of 1963 saw a conflict with Ford over a potential acquisition, which led to the "Ford vs Ferrari war," a contest that changed international motorsport. Ferrari prevailed in 1964 and 1965 but conceded the 1966 championship and Le Mans to the 7-litre GT40. Enzo Ferrari halted sports car development at the end of 1973 to concentrate on Formula One.
From 2006, Ferrari returned to GT car racing with Ferrari Competizioni GT in partnership with teams including AF Corse, Kessel Racing, and Risi Competizione. Ferrari won seven of ten GT manufacturers' championships in the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2012 (in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021, and 2022). AF Corse won the GTE Pro class at Le Mans in 2012, 2014, 2019, and 2021.
In 2023, after a 50-year hiatus, Ferrari returned to the top class of endurance racing with the Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar prototype, managed by AF Corse. At the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ferrari achieved its first Le Mans victory since 1965 with the No. 51 499P driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi. At the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, the No. 50 499P driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen won Ferrari's eleventh victory, recording consecutive Le Mans wins for the first time since 1965. The success was repeated in 2025, with the No. 83 499P driven by Phil Hanson, Robert Kubica, and Yifei Ye winning Ferrari's twelfth 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ferrari went on to win the 2025 World Manufacturers' and Drivers' Championships.
Team principals and sporting directors have included Federico Giberti (1950–1951), Nello Ugolini (1952–1955), Romolo Tavoni (1958–1961), Eugenio Dragoni (1962–1966), Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (1974–1975), Marco Piccinini (1978–1988), Cesare Fiorio (1989–1991), Jean Todt (1993–2007), Stefano Domenicali (2008–2014), Maurizio Arrivabene (2015–2018), Mattia Binotto (2019–2022), and Frédéric Vasseur (since 2023).
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.