Union boss Zanetti said the aim was to protect individual production units from the spread of the virus and that he expected more than 90% of employees to take tests. "Other companies are calling us to see how it works," he said.
Ferrari only produced just over 10,000 of its luxury sports cars last year so its initiative might not easily transfer to bigger automakers that churn out millions of vehicles a year.
However, Ferrari Chairman John Elkann is also chairman of auto giant Fiat Chrysler and he said Ferrari would share the project results. Exor, the holding company of Italy's Agnelli family, controls both companies.
Gaetano Gargiulo, who works in the R&D department in Maranello where prototypes of Ferrari's "Prancing Horse" supercars are built, said he had taken the blood test.
"I did it early in the morning and by 4 p.m. I'd received the response on my mobile," said Gargiulo, who is also part of an internal safety group appointed by fellow workers. "I was very happy to do it, for me and my family. I know that many colleagues are pushing to do it as soon as possible".
Gargiulo is also optimistic his fellow workers will agree to adopt the smartphone app when it's launched. "People are looking at it as a positive thing. As they agreed to take the blood test, they'll also use the app," he said.
Ferrari's app adheres to an European initiative called Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT), which is designed to track transmission chains of COVID-19 without infringing individual privacy.
The Ferrari app was developed by tech startup Bending Spoons in Milan, the same firm picked by the Italian government to create a national tracking platform as part of efforts to lift the nationwide lockdown.
Antoniazzi said the app would only track contacts users have had with others in the scheme using Bluetooth technology and would not record movement. Data collected will also be managed by a company outside Ferrari.
"People will be guaranteed anonymity and therefore privacy."
