Where to start with Ferrari? Arguably the most famous and instantly familiar marque on the planet, despite giving away almost half a century to the old guard of Mercedes or Ford. Ferrari’s ascension, meteoric and largely unchecked, began shortly after the Second World War, when Enzo, fresh from fronting Alfa Romeo’s racing stable, began plying his own trade as a builder of sports racers.
The Scuderia took little time to establish itself on the world stage, winning its first 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1949 and its first Grand Prix two years later. Enzo made no bones about the fact that he sold road cars purely to fund his passion for racing, and a highly specialised motorsport programme has always cohabited with an increasingly vast, commercial concept.
Today, Ferrari is part of the establishment, influencing the rule-making in Formula 1 and dictating much of the pace and vision of high-performance road car development. Its current suite of supercars and grand tourers combine a level of emotion, performance and luxury that is rarely matched and never bettered.
