ENZO FERRARI FOUNDED A RACING TEAM BEFORE A CAR COMPANY

Enzo Ferrari founded Ferrari, and he did it in two steps eighteen years apart. In 1929 he started Scuderia Ferrari in Modena as a racing team that prepared Alfa Romeo cars for owner drivers, and in 1947 the first car to carry his own name, the 125 S, ran for the first time. The company that sells Ferraris today is owned by neither the founder nor his son alone, and the route from one to the other runs through Ford, Fiat and a 2015 stock listing.

1929, Modena: A Racing Team Came Before a Car Company

Scuderia Ferrari was a racing outfit, not a manufacturer. Britannica says Enzo Ferrari, born on 18 February 1898 and an Alfa Romeo driver since 1920, founded the team in Modena in 1929 to prepare Alfa Romeo race cars, and Ferrari's own history describes it as a way for owner drivers to go racing. Some sources register his birth on 20 February, two days late after heavy snow, while Britannica and the Motorweb Museum keep 18 February.

That origin explains why the name outlasted the cars it first served. Scuderia Ferrari existed for eighteen years before a Ferrari car did. Accounts also differ on how Alfa Romeo absorbed the operation, with one source placing Alfa's racing takeover in 1938 under the Alfa Corse name, so any single date for that handover deserves care.

The Tipo 815 Wore Someone Else's Badge

His first cars were not badged as Ferraris. According to a Cars4Starters history, he set up Auto Avio Costruzioni, made industrial tooling, and built two Tipo 815 cars in 1940 on a Fiat platform, having agreed to a four year ban on using his name on cars he built. One is said to survive. That account comes from a single history, so it is attributed here and not asserted as settled.

Late May 1947: Cortese Wins in a 125 S

The 125 S engine first ran on 12 March 1947, before the car had bodywork, according to Ferrari's magazine. The car debuted at Piacenza on 11 May 1947 with Franco Cortese driving, led, and retired with a broken fuel pump. Later that month in Rome Cortese won, which Ferrari calls the first 100 percent Ferrari victory.

The date is contested inside Ferrari's own site. Its magazine article says 25 May 1947 and its history page says 20 May, a split that most secondary coverage repeats. Both agree on the driver, the car and the city.

Ford Offered Money in 1963 and Enzo Kept the Racing

Ferrari nearly had a different owner. In 1963, short of capital, Enzo walked away at the last minute from a deal that would have put Ford into the company, reportedly over a clause that gave Ford control of the racing division. Goodwood puts Ford's proposal at $10 million. An $18 million figure circulates online, but no source located for this page supports it, so it is left out.

Ford answered by building its own program, and the Henry Ford museum records a sweep of the top three places at Le Mans in 1966. The refusal protected the one thing Enzo kept saying he built the company to fund, which was the team.

Fiat in 1969, Piero in 1988, Exor Today

Britannica says Ferrari sold 50 percent of the company to Fiat in 1969 and stayed president until 1977. After he died on 14 August 1988, Fiat's stake rose to 90 percent and the remaining 10 percent went to his son Piero.

Ferrari N.V. listed on the New York Stock Exchange on 21 October 2015 at $52 a share, per Ferrari's investor page, though Fiat Chrysler's annual filing gives 26 October as the completion date. FCA finished separating Ferrari on 3 January 2016, and Milan trading began on 4 January.

Two holders anchor it now. Exor and the Ferrari family renewed their shareholders' agreement in January 2026, running to 4 January 2029 with automatic three year renewals. Coverage of the renewal puts Exor at about 21.2 percent of capital and 32.2 percent of votes, and Piero Ferrari at about 10.6 percent of capital and 16 percent of votes. An SEC Schedule 13D/A puts Exor at 21.3 percent, so the decimal moves with the source. Pages still quoting Exor near 24 percent are out of date.

What the Founder's Shadow Still Does

The archive shows how often Ferrari reaches back to him. The Legacy Tour of the GTO, F40 and F50 rests on the F40, released in 1987 for the company's 40th anniversary and the last car Enzo personally approved before his death in 1988. Ferrari then used that car for three separate 2026 marketing moments, among them Hamilton's F40 at Monza, and the 40th anniversary of the F40 itself arrives in 2027, the year F40 pre series number 2 is due to finish its restoration.

The company he founded now moves on a different scale. The F80 is limited to 799 units at about $3.9 million each, with 1,200 PS from a V6 derived from the 499P Le Mans car. The Luce interior with Jony Ive swaps screens for physical switches on Ferrari's first electric car, priced above 500,000 euros. Enzo's own sentiment about the racing never changed shape. Scuderia Ferrari, the name he registered in 1929, won its 250th Formula One race at Silverstone on 5 July 2026, with Charles Leclerc driving.