Why are Ferraris Red?

The name Ferrari almost automatically summons, even to a lesser connoisseur, the image of a fast car, with fluid lines and... the color red. But the truth is, while the early models made by Ferrari did sport a red body, it was for regulatory reasons, not by choice. It also turns out that this famous shade is not the official color of the brand, contrary to popular belief.

Before being a brand, Ferrari acted as Alfa Romeo's factory team on motor racing circuits. At the time, the former Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) required cars to be painted according to a color code, wherein each shade represented a country. The vehicles were therefore painted according to their country of origin: green for England, blue for France, silver-grey for Germany and... red for Italy. 

The first car built by Ferrari, an Auto Avio 815, was therefore red only out of respect for the rules, and not by choice of the manufacturer. All car brands had to wear the color of their country until 1968. Contrary to what rumors suggest, Enzo Ferrari has never favored this particular color for his models. Naturally, the first Ferrari ‘road’ vehicle intended for the public took the same shade of red to maintain the link with racing.

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Following a conflict with Alfa Romeo, Enzo Ferrari created the car manufacturing company Ferrari in 1947, in Maranello, 12 miles south of Modena. More than forty varieties of red have emerged since the creation of the brand: scuderia, roma, bordeaux, cherry, monza, vivo, and more. The only color element that has never changed on Ferrari cars is the emblem of the logo, the cavallino rampante, a black prancing horse on a yellow background.

As he explained in an interview in July 1985, “The first Cavallino [horse] was and remained black. I added a canary yellow background, which was the color of the city of Modena”. It is this yellow, which accompanies the prancing horse from the days when the team made Alfa Romeos until the production of racing Ferraris in 1947, which can be considered as the official color of the brand.

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