Ferrari’s history is filled with far more than famous road cars and Formula 1 victories. From royal connections and unusual sponsorships to forgotten racing stories and strange design decisions, the company’s past is packed with fascinating details that even many enthusiasts have never heard before.
If a few of these facts help you win an argument or impress your friends, at least now you know where you heard them first.
1. Ferrari skipped first Formula 1 race in 1950
Many people say Scuderia Ferrari has competed in Formula 1 since the very beginning, but the full story is slightly more complicated. The Formula 1 World Championship officially began on May 13, 1950, with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. However, Ferrari was notably absent from the grid at the championship’s opening race.
Photo: Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari chose not to send his team to Britain because he was unhappy with the appearance money offered by the organisers. Instead, Ferrari made its Formula 1 World Championship debut at the following round, the Monaco Grand Prix, just two weeks later. From that moment on, Ferrari became a permanent presence in the sport and remains the only team to have competed in every Formula 1 season since its debut in 1950.
2. Belgian princess and Englebert in 1957
During the 1950s, Ferrari allowed a handful of important clients to influence the design of their cars, leading to some remarkable one off creations for figures such as the Aga Khan and Gianni Agnelli. One especially influential customer was Princess Lilian de Réthy of Belgium, born Mary Lilian Baels, who married King Leopold III and became part of the Belgian royal family. Her connection with Ferrari grew far beyond simply ordering exclusive cars.
Photo: Darin Schnabel for RM Sotheby’s
The relationship became especially important in 1955 when Pirelli suddenly stopped supplying racing tyres to Ferrari during the Formula 1 season. With Ferrari heavily dependent on supplier partnerships, the loss threatened the team’s racing programme. After hearing of the problem, Princess Lilian contacted Belgian tyre manufacturer Englebert, which quickly agreed to supply Ferrari. The partnership proved highly successful and as a gesture of appreciation, Ferrari created a unique 250 GT coupe for the Princess in 1957, featuring special one off coachwork by Pinin Farina instead of the standard Boano body.
3. No speedometer in the 250 GTO in 1962
Despite being fully road legal, the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO was never fitted with a speedometer from the factory. Ferrari designed the car primarily for racing, so the dashboard focused on essential competition information such as oil pressure, water temperature and the large central rev counter. Knowing the exact road speed was apparently far less important than keeping the V12 engine in its ideal power range.
Photo: Ferrari
That means driving a 250 GTO on public roads would have been a unique experience. Imagine guiding one through a crowded city street with the sound of the Colombo V12 echoing around you, crowds gathering on every corner and no real way of knowing whether you were staying within the speed limit. Then again, considering a 250 GTO is worth tens of millions, anyone fortunate enough to own one today could probably survive the occasional speeding ticket as well.
4. The Ford colour on Ferraris in 1964
In the 1960s, British racing driver and businessman Colonel Ronnie Hoare, who also owned a successful Ford dealership in Bournemouth, reached an agreement with Enzo Ferrari to become Ferrari’s official distributor in the United Kingdom. This partnership created Maranello Concessionaires. Hoare raced iconic Ferraris such as the 250 GTO and 250 LM across Europe.
Photo: Ford
Although the cars retained Ferrari’s traditional red racing colours, they also featured a pale blue stripe and nose section commonly known as Cambridge Blue. The colour actually came from Hoare’s Ford connection, as it was officially Ford Pompadour Blue, a shade used on British Ford models like the Anglia during the early 1960s. Ferrari painted the cars at Maranello using paint supplied from Britain, creating one of the most recognisable liveries of the decade.
5. The team Ferrari allowed inside in 1977
Walter Wolf Racing was one of the most remarkable short lived teams in Formula 1 history. Active from 1977 to 1979, the team achieved the rare feat of winning its very first Grand Prix entry when Jody Scheckter claimed victory at the 1977 Argentine Grand Prix. Scheckter went on to enjoy an outstanding season, adding wins in Monaco and Canada along with six further podium finishes. By the end of the year, he had finished second in the World Championship behind Niki Lauda, while Wolf secured an impressive fourth place in the Constructors’ standings.
Photo: Simon Clay for RM Sotheby’s
Before the 1977 season began, however, the team faced a major problem because it had nowhere to properly test its new Formula 1 car. Scheckter personally contacted Enzo Ferrari by telex to ask whether Wolf could use Ferrari’s private Fiorano test circuit in Maranello. Enzo agreed, giving the small British Canadian team access to one of the most exclusive testing facilities in motorsport. At the time, Wolf was believed to be the only non Ferrari Formula 1 team permitted to test at Fiorano.
Scheckter’s performances with Wolf eventually caught Ferrari’s attention, and he joined Scuderia Ferrari for the 1979 Formula 1 season. That year, he won three Grands Prix and secured the World Championship with Ferrari. To this day, Scheckter remains Ferrari’s last World Champion driver from outside Europe.
6. Patrick Tambay’s sponsorship deal in 1983
In the early 1980s, the famous Paris cabaret Moulin Rouge briefly became linked with Scuderia Ferrari through French Formula 1 driver Patrick Tambay. The sponsorship first appeared during Tambay’s time with Theodore Racing in 1981, when Moulin Rouge branding featured on the team’s cars. When Tambay joined Ferrari in 1982 following the death of Gilles Villeneuve, the Moulin Rouge logo reportedly continued to appear on parts of his personal racing equipment, including his helmet and overalls.
Photo: Ferrari
The partnership was connected to Tambay personally rather than being an official Ferrari team sponsorship. At the time, Ferrari was gradually becoming more open to commercial branding, although Enzo Ferrari had traditionally resisted heavy sponsorship. The unusual association reflected Formula 1’s increasingly glamorous and experimental sponsorship culture during the early 1980s.
7. Ferrari dropped the numbers in 1984
The Ferrari Testarossa is widely considered Ferrari’s first major modern production road car whose official model name appeared without any numerical designation attached. Names like Superamerica, Superfast and Dino were used previously, but they were always in combination with a number (usually referring to engine size or cylinder configuration).
Photo: Kroymans Ferrari
The name of course refers to the car’s red painted cam covers, which sat on top of the flat 12 engine. Ferrari had previously used the “Testa Rossa” name in the 1950s on its successful sports racing cars, most notably the 250 Testa Rossa. On those earlier cars, the name was written as two separate words. For the 1984 Testarossa road car, Ferrari combined the words into a single name.
8. Ferrari’s champion dream team in 2014
The arrival of Kimi Räikkönen alongside Fernando Alonso in 2014 marked the first time since 1954 that Scuderia Ferrari fielded two Formula 1 World Champions in the same team. The previous occasion came when Ferrari entered the 1954 season with both Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina, two of the sport’s earliest title winners. Remarkably, Ferrari went almost six decades without repeating the feat, despite signing many legendary drivers during that period.
Photo: Ferrari
The Räikkönen and Alonso pairing brought together two of Formula 1’s biggest stars of the modern era. Alonso had won his titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006, while Räikkönen became World Champion with Ferrari in 2007 after one of the closest championship battles in Formula 1 history. Expectations were enormous, but the partnership lasted only one season before Alonso departed at the end of 2014. Even so, the line up remains one of the most impressive driver pairings Ferrari has ever assembled.
9. Ferrari’s historic double in 2023
In 2023, Scuderia Ferrari and Ferrari made history by becoming the first manufacturer since 1934 to win both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix in the same year. Ferrari’s victory at Le Mans came on its return to the top Hypercar category after a 50 year absence, with the Ferrari 499P defeating rivals from Toyota, Porsche and Cadillac in one of the most anticipated endurance races in decades. Just days earlier, Ferrari had won the Monaco Grand Prix with Charles Leclerc, ending the Monegasque driver’s long run of bad luck at his home race.
Photo: Ferrari
The last manufacturer to accomplish the same double was Alfa Romeo in 1934, during the early era of Grand Prix racing before Formula 1 officially existed. Ferrari’s 2023 success therefore connected the modern team with one of the rarest accomplishments in motorsport history.
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