Enzo Ferrari
Co-founder 1947Background
Enzo Ferrari was an Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur who was obsessively dedicated to motorsport from a young age. After serving in World War I, he found work at Alfa Romeo, eventually founding the Scuderia Ferrari racing team in 1929 as Alfa's racing division.
Role at Ferrari N.V.
Enzo Ferrari, famously known as 'Il Commendatore', was a complex, notoriously abrasive, and brilliant figure. He didn't care about selling road cars; his only passion was winning races. When Alfa Romeo withdrew its racing support, Ferrari left to build his own cars, legally barred from using his own name on a car for four years. In 1947, the first true Ferrari, the 125 S, drove out of the factory gates in Maranello. For decades, Enzo viewed the wealthy clients who bought his road cars largely as a nuisance—a necessary evil to generate cash to fund his Formula 1 and Le Mans teams. He was famous for pitting his own engineers and drivers against each other to drive performance, resulting in a culture of extreme pressure and historic victories. He ran the company with total autocratic control until he sold a 50% stake to Fiat in 1969 to ensure the financial survival of his racing team. He died in 1988 at the age of 90, having built the most famous automotive brand in history purely as a byproduct of his racing obsession.