However, the restless Tuscan was not content with his academic job and in 1954 quit the University to join the experiments department at Alfa Romeo as a test driver. In 1957, the death of a test-driver at the world famous automobile manufacturing company Ferrari left an opening that Bizzarrini desperately wanted to fill. Bizzarrini secured an interview through some connections in the Ferrari company higher-ups and joined Ferrari in February 1957. By 1958 he became the head of Controlling and Testing for Production. It was during this period that he met another Tuscan, Carlos Chiti, with whom he went on to collaborate in many projects.

Those were momentous times at Ferrari with some great minds working on the complex automobile design issues of the day. In 1961 Jaguar released the high-performance Jaguar E-type that set alarm bells ringing at Ferrari. The onus fell on Bizzarrini to come up with a fit reply to Jaguar. He worked hard and fast with just four other loyal Ferrari engineers. Their efforts resulted in the world famous Ferrari 250 GTO.

But Bizzarrini was not there to celebrate the success of their efforts. He along with his friend Chiti and a few others resigned from Ferrari in what became a much publicized ‘walkout’ protesting the impulsive decision of Enzo Ferrari to expel one of their friends Gardini. Count Volpi du Misurata of the Scuderia Serenissima then hired Bizzarrini, Chiti and two others to design a car to rival Ferrari’s GTO. But that venture too fell through and Bizzarrini had to look for newer pastures.