Racing-car designer, born in Modena, N Italy. He became a racing driver in 1920 (with Alfa-Romeo), founded the company which bears his name (1929), and was its president until 1977. In 1940 he began designing his own cars. Since 1951, the marque has been a major presence at Grand Prix races.
For the automobile named after this man, see Enzo Ferrari (car).Enzo Anselmo Ferrari (February 18, 1898 - August 14, 1988) was the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari car manufacturer.
Biography
Born in Emilia-Romagna, and raised in Modena, Italy, Enzo Ferrari grew up with little formal education but a strong desire to race cars.
He left CMN in 1920 to work at Alfa Romeo and racing their cars in local races he had more success. Ferrari turned this opportunity down and in something of a funk he did not race again until 1927 and even then his racing career was mostly over. He continued to work directly for Alfa Romeo until 1929 before starting Scuderia Ferrari as the racing team for Alfa.
Ferrari managed the development of the factory Alfa cars, and built up a team of over forty drivers, including Giuseppe Campari and Tazio Nuvolari. Ferrari himself continued racing until the birth of his first son in 1932 (Alfredo, known as Dino, who died in 1956).
The support of Alfa Romeo lasted until 1933 when financial constraints made Alfa withdraw. Only at the intervention of Pirelli did Ferrari receive any cars at all.
In 1937 Alfa took control of its racing efforts again, reducing Ferrari to Director of Sports under Alfa's engineering director. Ferrari soon left, but a contract clause restricted him from racing or designing for four years.
He set up Auto-Avio Costruzioni, a company supplying parts to other racing teams. It was not until after World War II that Ferrari sought to shed his fascist reputation and make cars bearing his name, founding today's Ferrari S.p.A.
The first open-wheeled race was in Turin in 1948 and the first victory came later in the year in Lago di Garda. Ferrari participated in the Formula 1 World Championship since its introduction in 1950 but the first victory was not until the British Grand Prix of 1951. The first championship came in 1952-53, when the Formula One season was raced with Formula Two cars. The company also sold production sports cars in order to finance the racing endeavours not only in Grand Prix but also in events such as the Mille Miglia and Le Mans. Indeed many of the firm's greatest victories came at Le Mans (14 victories, including six in a row 1960-65) rather than in Grand Prix, certainly the company was more involved there than in Formula One during the 1950s and 1960s despite the successes of Juan-Manuel Fangio (1956), Mike Hawthorn (1958), Phil Hill (1961) and John Surtees (1964).
In the 1960s the problems of reduced demand and inadequate financing forced Ferrari to allow Fiat to take a stake in the company.
Ferrari remained managing director until 1971.
However, Gilles Villeneuve was killed in the 126C2 in May, and teammate Didier Pironi had his career cut short in a violent end over end flip on the misty backstraight at Hockenheim in August. The team would not see championship glory again during Ferrari's lifetime.
Enzo Ferrari died in Modena in 1988 at the age of 90 at the beginning of the dominance of the McLaren Honda combination.
The Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team went on to dominate the sport winning six championships between 1999-2004 with Michael Schumacher at the steering wheel.
Made a Cavaliere del Lavoro in 1952, to add to his honours of Cavaliere and Commendatore in the 1920s, Enzo also received a number of honorary degrees, the Hammarskjöld Prize in 1962, the Columbus Prize in 1965, and the De Gasperi Award in 1987.
After the death of Alfredo "Dino" Ferrari, Enzo wore sunglasses just about every day to honor his son.
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