Enzo Ferrari came from a well-to-do
Modena family which ran a metal-working business.  The
family had sufficient money to own an automobile when Enzo was still a
toddler and cars were rare. Enzo saw his first motor race when he was 10
years old when his father took him and Enzo's brother Dino to a race around
the streets of the nearby city of Bologna and this sparked his interest in
the sport.
After World War I Ferrari decided that he wanted to become a racing driver
with the FIAT company. After failing to get a job he hung around Turin and
met some of the FIAT racing people and found a job as a handyman with a car
dealer, driving ex-military trucks south to be refitted and sold as
automobiles. Eventually he found a job with the CMN car company thanks to
his friendship with Ugo Sivocco, who he had met in Turin. Ferrari took part
in his first motor race in October 1919 on a hillclimb in Parma, at the
wheel of a CMN. His showing was sufficiently promising for an entry to be
made on the Targa Florio. He then went through a period as a driver of an
Isotta-Fraschini and then popped up as the owner and driver of an exotic
(and very expensive) an Alfa Romeo sportscar. In October 1920 he talked his
way into the Alfa Romeo team for the Targa Florio, alongside Giuseppe
Campari. A few months later he convinced Sivocco to join Alfa Romeo. While
racing he also established an Alfa Romeo dealership in Modena. Ferrari raced
on and off for Alfa Romeo for the next few years but built up his influence
in the racing department by convincing others to join the team, notably FIAT
engineer Luigi Bazzi. By then Alfa Romeo had produced its first Grand Prix
car - the P1. It was a disaster. Sivocco crashed one at Monza was killed.
Bazzi suggested that the company hire another FIAT engineer called Vittorio
Jano to develop the car. The result was the Alfa Romeo P2 which was an
immediate success in 1924 but in July 1925 the company withdrew after its
lead driver Antonio Ascari was killed during the French Grand Prix. Jano's
P2s were locked away. Ferrari continued to run his businesses and raced on
occasion. In 1929 Alfredo Caniato and Mario Tadini and others agreed to fund
the establishment of a racing team which Ferrari would run for them,
preparing Alfa Romeo cars. With the money they supplied he was able to hire
Campari and the team began to grow. When Alfa Romeo decided that it wanted
Campari back, Ferrari did a deal to get his hands on one of Jano's P2s and
hired a young Tazio Nuvolari to drive it.
Success led to expansion and the team took on rising stars Baconin
Borzacchini and Luigi Arcangeli and as the 1930 season progressed Scuderia
Ferrari increasingly became seen as the Alfa Romeo factory team . At the end
of 1932, as Jano was preparing a new P3 racer, Alfa Romeo decided to
withdraw from racing again. Ferrari tried to get his hands on the P3s but
was refused. As rivals Maserati and Bugatti had better machinery Ferrari
lost all his top drivers as the team struggled on with old Alfas. Eventually
Alfa Romeo management relented and the P3s were delivered to Modena. Bazzi
and Alfa test driver Attilio Marinoni left Alfa Romeo to join the Scuderia
and Ferrari hired Luigi Fagioli and the veteran Campari to be his drivers.
The team was immediately successful but at Monza in September Campari was
killed in one of the cars. The same accident claimed the life of former
Ferrari driver Borzacchini.
At the end of the year Alfa Romeo handed over the entire racing department
to Ferrari. He hired Achille Varzi , Louis Chiron and Carlo Trossi (a
partner in the team) with Algerians Guy Moll and Marcel Lehoux as second
string drivers. The rise of the German manufacturers would make it
increasingly difficult for Ferrari to compete at Grand Prix level. Moll won
at Monaco that year but was killed a few months later at Pescara. At the end
of the year Varzi left to join AutoUnion. Ferrari managed to convince
Nuvolari to return and hired Rene Dreyfus to be his partner alongside
Chiron. That year Nuvolari scored a famous and outstanding victory against
the Germans at the Nurburgring in the old Alfa Romeo P3.
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