The Ferrari Dino 246 was the latest F1 World Champion car with a front mounted engine. It replaced the 801 model and was intended to regain the supremacy lost for Maserati in the previous year.

It was designed by Vittorio Jano, and became the first Formula 1 car powered with a V6 engine to win a World Championship race. Built for the 1958 season, it remained active until 1960, having raced in 25 Grand Prix, winning 5 races and 7 pole positions.

His debut was at the Moroccan GP, in Casablanca 1957. He was driven by great Scuderia champions, such as Peter Collins, Wolfgang von Trips, Luigi Musso, Tony Brooks, Richie Ginther, Willy Mairesse, Olivier Gendebien and the World Champions Phil Hill and Mike Hawthorn. The latter became champion at his wheel in 1958. The last victory of a Ferrari Dino, happened in the Italy GP of 1960, in Monza, drove by Phil Hill. This was, also, the last GP victory of a front mounted engine Formula 1, and was due more to the boycott of the majority of the English teams than to the competitiveness of the car in its end of active life.

There have been made 9 models of this car, directly and indirectly associated with the deaths of 5 men, 3 of them at the wheel: a Ferrari engineer during the Modena tests and the drivers Luigi Musso, during the French Grand Prix of 1958, and Peter Collins, during the German GP in the same year. After becoming World Champion at his wheel, the British Mike Hawthorn retired of the competitions, having died in the beginning of the following year, in a car accident. The choice of engine type was decided in the lifetime of the son of Enzo Ferrari, the engineer Alfredino, also nicknamed Dino. This one would die of muscular dystrophy in 1956 and, in its honor, all the V6 engines later made by the Scuderia, had its signature recorded.

The chassis was multitubular, very lightweight, in aluminum, with two large elliptical tubes joined by smaller ones. The front suspension used double wishbones, coil springs and telescopic dampers with anti-roll bar, while a De Dion axle with a transverse upper leaf spring, two longitudinal radius arms and lever dampers, where used for the rear suspension.

The engine was designed by Carlo Chiti and was front mid-engine longitudinally mounted. It was a Dino type, 6 cylinder 65oV, with a capacity of 2,417cc, which, naturally aspirated, delivered about 270CV at 8,300rpm. The gearbox was a 4-speed Type 523 and was mounted longitudinally alongside the rear axle. In 1958, alcohol was replaced as a permitted fuel by avgás, used in aviation, with high octane and highly flammable, which was supplied to Ferrari by Shell.

The tires were from Englebert and the 4-wheel drum brakes, in the initial version, were progressively replaced, throughout the season, by disc brakes.

It was the last front mounted engine Formula F1 of Ferrari and kept the Scuderia competitive during the development of the new 156, a car with rear mounted engine that would take the Italian team back to the victories and titles in 1961.