The Ferrari 555 Supersqualo was the final evolution of Aurelio Lampredi’s four-cylinder Formula One programme. It arrived for the 1955 season as an update to the 553 Squalo, with revised weight distribution, new helical spring front suspension, and extended bodywork that earned it the name Supersqualo — Super Shark. Under the sculpted red panels sat a 2,497 cc Lampredi inline-four with a compression ratio of 13:1, producing 260 horsepower at 7,200 rpm through a five-speed gearbox. The car debuted at the Bordeaux Grand Prix on 24 April 1955.

Ferrari needed the Supersqualo to compete against the Mercedes-Benz W196, which Juan Manuel Fangio was driving to near-total dominance. But the car arrived with problems its predecessor had never resolved. The handling was poor. Paul Frère, who raced it at Monaco, later recalled that the Ferrari 555 Supersqualo was a beast around the circuit — it wanted to plough straight on at every hairpin. The drivers distrusted the car and often asked for the older 625 instead.

Chassis 555/1 carried two World Champions behind its wheel. Nino Farina — the sport’s first ever World Champion, in 1950 — drove it in non-championship races. Mike Hawthorn, who would become the first British driver to win the Formula One World Championship in 1958, raced it in World Championship events. Piero Taruffi and Paul Frère also drove this chassis. At the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, it finished fourth — one of the few World Championship points-scoring finishes for the Supersqualo that season.

The 1955 season was truncated by the aftermath of the Le Mans disaster, which led to the cancellation of several races. Ferrari’s only Grand Prix victory that year came at Monaco, where Maurice Trintignant won in a race remembered for Alberto Ascari’s accident that sent his Lancia into the harbour. Four days later, Ascari was killed testing at Monza. Meanwhile, Lampredi had left Ferrari after serious disagreements with Enzo, and the technical direction of the team was shifting.

By 1956, Ferrari had acquired the Lancia D50 design and most of the Scuderia moved to the new Lancia-Ferrari cars. Only Peter Collins continued to race the Ferrari 555 Supersqualo. It was the end of the Lampredi four-cylinder era in Formula One. The surviving cars were sold. Chassis 555/1 went through private hands, was modified for Formule Libre racing in Australia and New Zealand, and raced successfully through 1959 before being damaged in 1963. Its engine was removed and used in a boat.

Only two Ferrari 555 Supersqualos are known to survive today. Chassis 555/1, restored and maintained by Ferrari specialist Corrado Patella of Autofficina Omega in Northern Italy, has appeared at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix and the Goodwood Revival. This photograph captures the nose of the Supersqualo at close range — the Scuderia Ferrari red, the badge, the sculptural lines of a body designed to cut through air faster than anything Lampredi had built before.