Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata is an Italian-Algerian nobleman and a former automobile racing manager and Formula One team owner. He inherited a fortune, at the age of 24, from his father, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, a politician financier and founder of the renowned Venice Film Festival. During World War II, Giovanni Volpi's father served in Mussolini's cabinet as the minister of Finance and one of his chief advisors. He designed several of Mussolini's austerity measures and escaped prosecution after the war. His father also acquired and restored Villa Barbaro at Maser, Italy, built originally for the Barbaro family. Giovanni Volpi is the son of Giuseppe and his second wife, Nathalie El Kanoni.
Giovanni Volpi founded a racing team, Scuderia Serenissima, in 1961 and quickly became one of Ferrari's best customers. In 1962, Scuderia Serenissima commissioned to Piero Drogo and Giotto Bizzarrini the design of the Ferrari 250 GT Drogo, also known as Ferrari Breadvan. At the end of the year, when a group of senior figures, including Bizzarrini and Carlo Chiti, left Ferrari to join Volpi and found ATS, Volpi's relationship with Enzo Ferrari cooled.