History of Ferrari F1 team

The Prancing Horse have a long and storied history in Formula One being the sports’ oldest and most successful team. Having competed in every championship since 1950, they made their debut at the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix but had to wait until the 1951 British Grand Prix for their first victory via Jose Frolian Gonzalez.

Alfa Romeo’s departure from the sport opened the door for Alberto Ascari to win back-to-back titles, while the great Juan Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn took home titles as well to round out a successful decade for the Scuderia.

The 1960s were less successful as BRM, Lotus and Brabham dominated proceedings, though Phil Hill and John Surtees managed to claim world titles. Niki Lauda took the team to new heights in the 70s, winning the title in 1975 and 1977 and only missing out on the 1976 crown after his horrific crash at the German Grand Prix that saw him suffer severe burns.

Jody Scheckter took the title in 1979 before the team embarked on a winless run that even legends like Gilles Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost failed to reverse.

Michael Schumacher and Ferrari dominate Formula 1

Ferrari’s return to the top of the sport started in 1996 after signing two-time World Champion Michael Schumacher, along with several members of his Benetton technical staff, namely Ross Brawn and Rory Bryne. The car’s lack of pace and poor reliability was apparent from the start of the season, but that didn’t stop Schumacher from claiming one of his most famous victories at the Spanish Grand Prix, coming back from a poor start in a torrential downpour to win the race by over 40 seconds. His performance earned him the nickname of “Rainmaster”.Two more victories followed, the second of which came at Monza to give the tifosi their first victory on home soil since 1988.

However the title would allude Ferrari for several seasons, as a collision with eventual champions Jacques Villeneuve at the final race of the 1997 season saw Schumacher disqualified from the championship. Mika Hakkinen and his McLaren burst onto the scene to win in 1998, while Schumacher was taken out of contention in 1999 after breaking his leg at the British Grand Prix. The German returned later in the season to help Eddie Irvine in the Irishman’s push for an unlikely title, and while he fell two points short of the Finn, Ferrari did claim their first Constructors’ Championship since 1983.

Rubens Barrichello was brought in to replace Irvine in 2000 as the team went on to dominate the Formula 1 landscape for the next five years. Schumacher ended Ferrari’s Drivers’ Championship drought after winning the Japanese Grand Prix, his first of five consecutive titles that saw him move past Juan Manuel Fangio atop the all-time list. Ferrari’s dominance was never more apparent than in 2002 when the team won 15 out of 17 races to match McLaren’s record in 1988.

While Schumacher and Ferrari challenged for titles in 2005 and 2006, they fell short to Renault’s Fernando Alonso as Kimi Raikkonen was brought in to replace the retiring German in 2007. He added to the Scuderia’s legacy by claiming the World Title, while the team added another constructors' championship.

Close calls and rebuild

It would prove to be Ferrari’s last real hurrah despite winning the Constructors’ Championship in 2008, as the team would see pushes for the drivers’ title via Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel ultimately fail in the end with Red Bull and Mercedes dominating the decade.

As a result the team will go with young upstarts Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in 2021 in an attempt to turn around fortunes ahead of massive changes to the sports’ regulations in 2022.