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Ferrari remain the most famous and evocative name in the history of F1 – and no wonder, with a history stretching back to the very beginning of the F1 world championship in 1950.
The early days
In fact, the history of Ferrari stretches back well before 1950. Enzo Ferrari was an occasional racing driver who had close ties with Alfa Romeo when he started running cars, driven by the likes of Tazio Nuvolari, Giuseppe Campari and Luigi Fagioli.
After the war, Ferrari decided he would build his own cars and he recruited Gioacchino Colombo from Alfa Romeo to design the company’s first car, the 125.
At the start of the world championship, Ferrari were overpowered by the mighty Alfas but Froilan Gonzalez took their maiden F1 win at Silverstone in 1951.
The withdrawal of Alfa and a change to engine regulations saw Ferrari’s Alberto Ascari dominate the 1952 and 1953 seasons, winning 11 races, including nine in a row.
Triumph and tragedy
Fangio drove a Ferrari to his fourth world title in 1955 but the great Argentinean but, for Enzo, the year was marred by tragedy when his son Dino died.
Things got worse in 1957 when Alfonso de Portago crashed a Ferrari into the crowd during the Mille Miglia, killing himself and 11 spectators. Following the accident, Enzo was charged with manslaughter.
But 1958 saw Ferrari return to winning ways when Mike Hawthorn pipped Stirling Moss to the title in the Tipo 146, nicknamed the ‘Dino’ after Enzo’s son.
Shark-nose
As F1 teams raced to copy Cooper’s rear-engined design, Ferrari introduced the shark-nosed 156 in 1961 and Phil Hill won the title. But the team’s glory was again overshadowed by tragedy – this time, Wolfgang von Trips was killed at Monza.
John Surtees claimed another world title in 1964, becoming the first and so far only man to win world titles on both two and four wheels. But for the next decade, Ferrari struggled as the likes of Lotus and then Tyrrell burst to the fore.
Back on top
But Ferrari were restored to what many would consider their rightful place at the head of the sport in 1974 when Niki Lauda was hired. The Austrian claimed the world title in 1975 and 1977 and would almost certainly have won in 1976 had it not been for his near-fatal accident at the Nurburgring.
Lauda departed at the end of 1977 and was replaced by Gilles Villeneuve, who quickly became the darling of not only the tifosi but Enzo himself. The man himself described Villeneuve as ‘like a son’ and was devastated when he died in 1982.
Jody Scheckter won the 1979 title but the team was left behind in the early 1980s by the likes of Williams, Brabham and McLaren. Incredibly, it would be 21 long years before the championship would return to Maranello.
20 years of hurt
Ferrari enjoyed occasional success throughout the 1980s and early 1990s – Michele Alboreto was a distant second in the 1985 championship while Alain Prost came close in 1990 – but it was a period of spectacular underachievement by their standards.
In 1988, Enzo died at the age of 90 and just a few weeks later, his cars came home 1-2 in the Italian GP at Monza after Ayrton Senna was barged off by Jean-Louis Schlesser. It was the only time McLaren were beaten that season and an appropriate send-off to the great man.
The Italian renaissance
Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari’s former personal assistant and team manager during the 1970s, took over as president of the company in 1991 with the intention of returning Ferrari to winning ways.
Nothing happened immediately but the arrival of Jean Todt, Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne in the mid Nineties soon transformed them.
Schumacher was denied the title three times before finally breaking Ferrari’s duck in 2000, since when the team has been virtually unbeatable.
Schumacher has taken four drivers’ titles on the spin and the team five consecutive constructors’ crowns, a period of domination with no precedent in F1 history.
Enzo would have been proud.
Drivers: Rubens Barrichello | Gerhard Berger | David Coultard | Giancarlo Fisichella | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Mika Hakkinen | Eddie Irvine | Olivier Panis | Michael Schumacher | Ralf Schumacher | Jacques Villeneuve
Teams: Ferrari | Jordan | McLaren | Renault | Williams
