History
Scuderia Ferrari History
Enzo Ferrari
The grandest and most historical name in Formula 1, Scuderia Ferrari have been a part of the sport since its inception in .
The Italian team are unparalleled and have won 15 drivers' championships and 16 constructors’ titles, while they also hold the records of most wins, most points, most podiums and most one-two’s finishes.
Any young driver aspires to drive for the Ferrari F1 team. Their history, their grandeur and their success has given them a mystical status within the sport, and drivers such as Fangio, Lauda, Prost and Schumacher have added to their global appeal and reputation.
The team is named after their founder, Enzo Ferrari, while 'Scuderia' is an Italian term for a stable kept for racing horses, hence the teams nickname ‘the prancing horse’.
Ferrari's first F1 car the 125S
Ferrari’s illustrious history started in the sports embryonic years, as won the . He remains the last Italian world champion. In he defended his title, before his premature death in 1955.
The legendary signed for Ferrari after Ascari's death and he won the , his fourth and the teams third.
In 1958 both Ferrari drivers and died in accidents, however Brit went on to win his sole world championship in .
The sixties brought further championships for and , but the team entered decline as British teams and Tyrell started to dominate the sport.
Phil Hill driving the 156 F1 car in Germany (1961)
In the 1960’s the sport was notorious for death and heavy crashes. Ferrari suffered casualties, such as and , while suffered a career ending injury in a near fatal crash.
Ferrari were out of sync at the top until the mid-70’s when they signed Austrian . Lauda's work ethic and professionalism took them back to the top as he held off ’s to win the title in
However, Lauda suffered a near fatal accident in which left him with severe burns, but he bravely returned to the sport and won his second title in .
The Ferrari F1 team were at the top of the sport in the seventies, and the enigmatic along with his team-mate, , looked set to lead the team into promising future, after Scheckter won the .
Jean Alesi Ferrari Brazil (1994)
However, British manufacturers and McLaren dominated the decade with driving talent such as , , and .
Ferrari signed Prost after his fall out with Senna in but they were denied the title due to the Brazilian’s suspiciously unfair antics. That was a close as the team got for years and in , 17 years since their last title, they signed the hottest driver on the grid, .
The double world champion was tasked with returning the glory days to the Italian team. In he was close but his underhand tactics saw him lose to ’s (Gilles son) Williams.
In , Schumacher narrowly lost to his great rival at McLaren, while in a broken leg denied him the opportunity. , Schumacher’s team-mate, came close but eventually succumbed to Hakkinen.
Michael Schumacher & Rubens Barrichello F2004 Bahrain F1 GP (2004)
However, all of the team's near misses proved to be the calm before the storm, as Ferrari came back with a vengeance.
The Ferrari F1 team and the incredible Schumacher won five titles in a row between -, in cars that were unbeatable. They reached out to a new generation of fans and created history that is unlikely to ever be repeated.
Since the Schumacher days, Ferrari have been regularly competing at the top, although they have lost ground to and Mercedes in recent years.
won the title, almost won in and went close in and .
The Ferrari F1 team continue to have the largest fan base in the sport, helped in large by their famed ‘tifosi’, an army of loyal Italian fans. When Ferrari races, the whole nation supports them. The tifosi are unrivalled when F1 arrives in Monza for the Italian Grand Prix.
Felipe Massa, Ferrari F138 at Monaco (2013)
In 2013 Ferrari had to battle with the upcoming Mercedes team for 2nd place behind the dominating Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel in it. They lost the battle and had to settle for 3rd, but they did win 2 races.
The 2014 F1 season was even worse then 2013 for Ferrari. The new technical regulations where giving the engineers a hard time and the Italian team had to settle for 4th place in the constructors championship and didn't win a single race that season. The last time that happened was back in 1993!
The team now has to find their way past Red Bull and Mercedes again and built up their team again.
In 2015 Sebastian Vettel came to Ferrari to live his dream by becoming F1 champ in a Ferrari like his idol Micheal Schumacher did.
Sebastian Vettel wins his first grand prix for Ferrari in Malaysia (2015)
He replaced Fernando Alonso who started his adventure with McLaren. He did win the first race for Ferrari after 35! grand prix without a single win at Malaysia, but couldn't do any better magic.
Brilliant engineer James Allison who came from Lotus in 2015 to show his technical skills did built a better car for 2016. Unfortunately his wife died in 2016 and he decided to move back to Britain to work for Mercedes in 2017. 2016 was again a season without any grand prix win for Ferrari, both world champion drivers did score 10 podiums with it. The SF16-H was't slow. but could not beat the Red Bull RB12 and the very dominating Mercedes W07.
In 2017 the season started very well for the Italian Formula 1 team. Sebastian Vettel won the first race and scored 5 race wins. Together with Kimi Raikkonen he scored 19 podiums. The team made an immense progression over the winter. Reliability was better than ever before. Driver errors which caused stupid collisions in Spain, Azerbaijan and Singapore and a spark plug failure in Japan cost the team from Maranello the drivers and constructors title.
2018 started out very promising again. Winter testing looked very promising with great reliability and speed. Vettel broke the lap record of Catalunya and with a bit of luck and great race strategy, he won the first race in Melbourne. The wasn't able to keep up their good performance the whole year and Sebastian Vettel lost the title in his home race when he lost control while leading the race. This was the turning point for the championship and the German drivers' career at Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc replaced Raikkonen as Vettel's replacement at the Scuderia for the 2019 season and many saw Ferrari as the team to beat after winter testing. However, things did not go according to plan and it was Mercedes dominating with Lewis Hamilton at the front.
In the second race, the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix, Leclerc grabbed Pole Position and would've taken his maiden win before an engine issue left him just third in the event.
Race winner Charles Leclerc, Ferrari celebrates on the podium with the champagne during the Italian GP at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on September 08, 2019. (Photo by Steven Tee / LAT Images)
After a tough first half of the season without wins, Ferrari had a strong start to the second half, with Leclerc winning the 2019 Belgian and Italian Grands Prix consecutively from Pole Position. Then, Vettel won the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix in what was his last victory for the team.
Vettel departed Ferrari at the end of the 2020 season and Carlos Sainz was announced as his replacement. The 2020 campaign saw Ferrari sixth in the championship with two podiums for Leclerc and one for Vettel.
The 2021 Formula 1 season saw an improvement from the previous year, as Leclerc and Sainz put the team in third place in the World Constructors' Championship with 323.5 points. Sainz finished fifth in the WDC with 164.5 points and Leclerc seventh with 159.
Sainz scored four podiums in his first year with Ferrari, while Leclerc had only one podium after coming close to winning the 2021 British Grand Prix, but ultimately finishing second.
In the new era of Formula 1, starting in 2022 with the return of 'Ground Effect' to the series, Ferrari got off to a great start, with Leclerc winning the season-opening 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix and putting himself as a title contender in the early stages of the campaign.
Charles Leclerc
After a strong start, Ferrari's title charge in 2022 faded as the team often failed to be as efficient as Red Bull, although the Austrian team clearly had the dominant car in the field. Ferrari also contributed to Red Bull's easy run to the title with several mistakes and mechanical issues.
The team finished second in both the World Constructors' and Drivers' championships in 2022. Ferrari won four races in 2022, with Leclerc (second in the standings) winning at Bahrain, Australia, and Austria and Carlos Sainz (fifth) winning the 2022 British GP.
Ferrari scored 554 points in 2022, its best tally since 2018, but still saw the Drivers' title end with four rounds to spare in the calendar.
On 29 November 2022, Ferrari announced that former Team Principal (since 2019) Matia Binotto had resigned from his place. Fred Vasseur, Alfa Romeo's TP since the 2017 campaign, took the Team Principal job at the Scuderia, with the information coming out on December 13, 2022.
Vasseur also served as Renault Team Principal in 2016.
Ferrari struggled to start the 2023 F1 season with the speed of the early 2022 rounds, but Charles Leclerc managed to score podiums at Azerbaijan and Austria, which was the 800th podium in the Scuderia's history (the highest tally in Formula 1 history).
Leclerc also started in Pole Position for the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the only non-Red Bull Pole Position of the 2023 F1 season in the first 10 events of the calendar.
Leclerc was in Pole Position again in the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen received a penalty for exceeding parts. He finished third in the race.
MARINA BAY STREET CIRCUIT, SINGAPORE - SEPTEMBER 17: Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23, leads Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23 during the 2023 Singapore GP.
Carlos Sainz gave Ferrari its 23rd Pole Position in the Italian Grand Prix (all-time record) and the team's second straight at their home Grand Prix. However, Red Bull won the race with a 1-2 and Sainz settled for a solid P3.
Sainz again qualified on Pole Position in the following race in Singapore, as Red Bull struggled. Sainz controlled the race at the front and managed to keep his competitors behind, even though it seemed they had better tyres at the end.
The win was Sainz's second in his F1 career and the 243rd for Ferrari (all-time record).
Ferrari struggled in Japan and Qatar but returned to the podium in Austin (with Sainz) and Mexico (Leclerc). Leclerc had started in Pole Position in Austin and Mexico and repeated the feat in Las Vegas.
In Las Vegas, Leclerc showed up as the fastest driver on race day, but strategy calls left him in second place, behind the Red Bull of Verstappen.
Leclerc closed out the season with another P2 in Abu Dhabi, but Ferrari fell short of second place in the World Constructors' Championship.
Leclerc was fifth in the championship with 206 points, while Sainz finished seventh with 200. The Monegasque driver achieved six podiums and five Pole Positions.
On the other side, Sainz won a race, started in Pole Position twice, and added two other podiums to his stat sheet.
Lewis Hamilton's arrival in 2025
On 1 February 2024, Ferrari announced that seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton was joining the team for the 2025 season, after one final campaign with Mercedes in 2024.
Hamilton's arrival left Grand Prix-winner Carlos Sainz without a seat for 2025, thus ending his four-year run with the Scuderia.
Official Scuderia Ferrari Website: https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/formula1