Ferarri

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Ferrari S.p.A.

(/fəˈrɑːri/; Italian: [ferˈraːri]) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based


in Maranello, Italy. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built its first car in
1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and began to produce its current line of road cars in 1947.
Ferrari became a public company in 1960, and from 1963 to 2014 it was a subsidiary of Fiat S.p.A. It
was spun off from Fiat's successor entity, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, in 2016.
The company currently offers a large model range which includes several supercars, grand tourers,
and one SUV. Many early Ferraris, dating to the 1950s and 1960s, count among the most expensive
cars ever sold at auction. Owing to a combination of its cars, enthusiast culture, and successful
licensing deals, in 2019 Ferrari was labelled the world's strongest brand by the financial consultancy
Brand Finance.[6] As of May 2023, Ferrari is also one of the largest car manufacturers by market
capitalisation, with a value of approximately US$52 billion.[7]
Throughout its history, the company has been noted for its continued participation in racing,
especially in Formula One, where its team, Scuderia Ferrari, is the series' single oldest and most
successful. Scuderia Ferrari has raced since 1929, first in Grand Prix events and later in Formula
One, where since 1952 it has fielded fifteen champion drivers, won sixteen Constructors'
Championships, and accumulated more race victories, 1–2 finishes, podiums, pole positions, fastest
laps and points than any other team in F1 history.[8][9] Historically, Ferrari was also highly active
in sports car racing, where its cars took many wins in races like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and 24
Hours of Le Mans, as well as several overall victories in the World Sportscar Championship.
Scuderia Ferrari fans, commonly called tifosi, are known for their passion and loyalty to the team.

History[edit]
Main article: History of Ferrari

Early history[edit]

Three Scuderia Ferrari cars in 1934, all Alfa Romeo P3s.


Drivers, left to right: Achille Varzi, Louis Chiron, and Carlo Felice Trossi.
Enzo Ferrari, formerly a salesman and racing driver for Alfa Romeo, founded Scuderia Ferrari, a
racing team, in 1929. Originally intended to service gentleman drivers and other amateur racers, Alfa
Romeo's withdrawal from racing in 1933, combined with Enzo's connections within the company,
turned Scuderia Ferrari into its unofficial representative on the track.[10] Alfa Romeo supplied racing
cars to Ferrari, who eventually amassed some of the best drivers of the 1930s and won many races
before the team's liquidation in 1937.[10][11]: 43
Late in 1937, Scuderia Ferrari was liquidated and absorbed into Alfa Romeo,[10] but Enzo's
disagreements with upper management caused him to leave in 1939. He used his settlement to
found his own company, where he intended to produce his own cars. He called the company "Auto
Avio Costruzioni", and headquartered it in the facilities of the old Scuderia Ferrari;[1] due to
a noncompete agreement with Alfa Romeo, the company could not use the Ferrari name for another
four years. The company produced a single car, the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, which participated in
only one race before the outbreak of World War II. During the war, Enzo's company produced
aircraft engines and machine tools for the Italian military; the contracts for these goods were
lucrative, and provided the new company with a great deal of capital. In 1943, under threat of Allied
bombing raids, the company's factory was moved to Maranello. Though the new facility was
nonetheless bombed twice, Ferrari remains in Maranello to this day.[1][11]: 45–47 [12]
Under Enzo Ferrari[edit]

Ferrari's factory in the early 1960s: everything in its


production line was handmade by machinists, who followed technical drawings with extreme
precision. Much of this work is now done by industrial robots.
[13] [14]

In 1945, Ferrari adopted its current name. Work started promptly on a new V12 engine that would
power the 125 S, which was the marque's first car, and many subsequent Ferraris. The company
saw success in motorsport almost as soon as it began racing: the 125 S won many races in 1947,[15]
[16]
and several early victories, including the 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans and 1951 Carrera
Panamericana, helped build Ferrari's reputation as a high-quality automaker.[17][18] Ferrari won several
more races in the coming years,[8][19] and early in the 1950s its road cars were already a favourite of
the international elite.[20] Ferrari produced many families of interrelated cars, including
the America, Monza, and 250 series, and the company's first series-produced car was the 250 GT
Coupé, beginning in 1958.[21
In 1960, Ferrari was reorganized as a public company. It soon began searching for a business
partner to handle its manufacturing operations: it first approached Ford in 1963, though negotiations
fell through; later talks with Fiat, who bought 50% of Ferrari's shares in 1969, were more successful.
[22][23]
In the second half of the decade, Ferrari also produced two cars that upended its more
traditional models: the 1967 Dino 206 GT, which was its first mass-produced mid-engined road car,
[a]
and the 1968 365 GTB/4, which possessed streamlined styling that modernised Ferrari's design
language.[26][27] The Dino in particular was a decisive movement away from the company's
conservative engineering approach, where every road-going Ferrari featured a V12 engine placed in
the front of the car, and it presaged Ferrari's full embrace of mid-engine architecture, as well
as V6 and V8 engines, in the 1970s and 1980s.[26]
Contemporary[edit]
Enzo Ferrari died in 1988, an event that saw Fiat expand its stake to 90%.[28] The last car that he
personally approved — the F40 — expanded on the flagship supercar approach first tried by the 288
GTO four years earlier.[29] Enzo was replaced in 1991 by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, under
whose 23-year-long chairmanship the company greatly expanded. Between 1991 and 2014, he
increased the profitability of Ferrari's road cars nearly tenfold, both by increasing the range of cars
offered and through limiting the total number produced. Montezemolo's chairmanship also saw an
expansion in licensing deals, a drastic improvement in Ferrari's Formula One performance (not least
through the hiring of Michael Schumacher and Jean Todt), and the production of three more flagship
cars: the F50, the Enzo, and the LaFerrari. In addition to his leadership of Ferrari, Montezemolo was
also the chairman of Fiat proper between 2004 and 2010.[30]
After Montezemolo resigned, he was replaced in quick succession by many new chairmen and
CEOs. He was succeeded first by Sergio Marchionne,[30] who would oversee Ferrari's initial public
offering and subsequent spin-off from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles,[31][32] and then by Louis Camilleri as
CEO and John Elkann as chairman.[33] Beginning in 2021, Camilleri was replaced as CEO
by Benedetto Vigna, who has announced plans to develop Ferrari's first fully electric model.[34] During
this period, Ferrari has expanded its production, owing to a global increase in wealth, while
becoming more selective with its licensing deals.[35][36

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