Current Ferrari

Ferrari

FIA Entry: Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Drivers Car 5: Fernando Alonso
Car 6: Felipe Massa
Engine: Ferrari V8
Chairman: Luca di Montezemolo
Team Principal: Stefano Domenicali
Technical Director: Aldo Costa
Race Engineer Car 5: Andrea Stella
Race Engineer Car 6: Rob Smedley

Stats as of end 2010 Season

First Entered: 1950
Races Entered: 813
Race Wins: 215
Pole Positions: 205
Fastest Laps: 224
Driver World Championships: 15
Constructor World Championships: 16

Team History

Ferrari are the only team to have taken part in the F1 World Championship since it's inception in 1950. They are synonymous with F1 and, for many, the reason why they follow the sport. Ferrrai fans, or Tifosi, have clubs across the World and can be see supporting their beloved red cars from China to Brazil.

Pre-War

Enzo Ferrari founded Scuderia (Italian for Stable) Ferrari in 1929 as the race entrants for Alfa Romeo. In 1938 Alfa decided to create their own race team and Scuderia Ferrari became part of the Alfa Course team. Disagreeing with the decision Enzo Ferrari was dismissed. As part of his contract he wasn't allowed to enter motor sport under his own name for 4 years. Ferrari started to build his own car in 1939 but the start of WWII meant the Ferrari factory was used for other purposes

Before the World Championships

The first racing Ferrari was the Tipo 125 with a 12 cylinder 1.5 litre engine developed in 1947. This was the first car to bear the now legendary Ferrari name. In 1948 the 125 F1 was built with a supercharged version of the 12 cylinder engine which won 5 Grands Prix in 1949.

The 1950's

Ferrari missed the first race of the first World Championship season with their first entry being at Monaco with the 125 F1. The first V12 powered Ferrari appeared at the Belgian Grand Prix that year and Ascari finished 5th.

Ferrari's first F1 win came at the British Grand Prix in 1951 with the Tipo 375 in the hands of Froilan Gonzales. With F1 run to F2 regulations in 1952 and '53, causing the withdrawal of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari dominated and Alberto Ascari in the Tipo 500, with a 4 cylinder 2 litre engine, won the Drivers World Championship both years.

1954 saw the introduction of the 2.5 litre formula and Ferrari had new competition from Maserati, Lancia and Mercedes. The new Mercedes team were too strong and Ferrari could only manage two races wins.

Ferrari only won one race in 1955 and for 1956 used chassis bought from the now defunct Lancia team. With Mercedes withdrawal Fangio moved to Ferrari and duly won his 3rd consecutive championship. Still using the ageing Lancia chassis in in 1957 Ferrari failed to win a race. 1958 saw Mike Hawthorn win the Drivers Championship in the new 246 Dino, named after Enzo Ferrari's recently deceased son. Ferrari missed out to Vanwall in the inaugural year of the Constructors Championship.

1959 saw Tony Brooks, in the Top 246 just miss out on the Drivers Championship to Jack Brabham in a rear engined Cooper.

The 1960's

Slow to react the the obvious advantages of the rear engined cars Ferrari continued with the 246 in 1960 and only managed a single victory.

For 1961 engines sizes were limited to 1.5 litres and Ferrari entered their first rear engined car, the Tipo 156. Based on the previous years F2 car Phil Hill took the Drivers Championship and Ferrari their first Constructors title. With little development to the 156 Ferrari failed to win a race in 1962.

In a season dominated by Jim Clark and Lotus, John Surtees put Ferrari back in the winners circle in 1963 with a win Germany following the introduction of the "Aero" 156 semi-monocoque car. With 3 wins in 1964 Surtees won the Drivers titles by a single point from Graham Hill in the last race of the season and Ferrari took their 2nd constructors title.

Clark and Lotus dominated again in 1965 and Ferrari couldn't compete against the British Garagerists. The new 3 litre engine regulations for 1966 proved more successful and John Surtees won in Belgium and Mexico to take 2nd place in the Drivers Championship. The Tipo 312 didn't do well for Ferrari in 1967 with a highest position of 3rd. Jacky Ickx managed a single win for the Scuderia in 1968 at the French Grand Prix. Continuing with the 312 into 1969 Ferrari again had a barren year.

The 1970's

With Ickx back at Ferrari for 1970 and a with B spec version of the 312 Ferrari won four races, three for Ickx and one for young Swiss driver Clay Regazzoni, in his début year in F1. Ickx finished 2nd in the Drivers Championship to Jochen Rindt, F1's first posthumous World Champion, and Ferrari managed the same position in the constructors title race.

Ickx and Mario Andretti won races in 1971 but the season was dominated by Jackie Stewart and his Tyrrell car. Ickx won a single race in 1972 but, as the team continued with the 312B, they were outpaced but Lotus and Tyrrell in 1973.

A young Austrian driver by the name of Niki Lauda was partnered with Regazzoni for 1974 and the team regrouped under the leader ship of Luca di Montezemolo. Lauda won his first race, and Ferrari’s first win since 1972, in Spain. Lauda won again in Holland and Regazzoni in Germany to place Ferrari 2nd in the constructors championship.

Ferrari’s decision to sign Lauda was justified in 1975 as he won the Drivers with some ease, taking 5 race wins. Regazzoni also won the Italian Grand Prix and Ferrari won the Constructors title.

Lauda missed out on the drivers title by a single point to James Hunt in 1976. His season was "interrupted" by an horrific crash at the German Grand Prix at Nurburgring which nearly cost the Austrian his life. Astonishingly Lauda only missed two races but retired at the last race of the season believing the soaking conditions to dangerous to race in. Ferrari won the constructors title.

Lauda was Champion again in 1977 but left the team before the end of the season unhappy at the team's decision to run a 3rd car for Gilles Villeneuve at the Canadian Grand Prix.

For 1978 Ferrari paired Villeneuve alongside Argentine driver Carlos Reutemann. The 312T3, with it's flat 12 engine, wasn't ideal for the new "wing" car technology but Reutemann still managed 4 race wins and Villeneuve took a début win at his home race in Canada.

Reutemann was replaced by Jody Scheckter for 1979 and with the 312 now in T4 guise won the Driver Championship with 4 wins. Villeneuve contributed a further 3 races victories and Ferrari ran away with the Constructors title.

The 1980's

Struggling on with their flat 12 engine for 1980 Ferrari had a dreadful season with 5th place being the best the could manage. Scheckter retired from F1 at the end of 1980 and was replaced by French driver Didier Pironi.

Ferrari moved into a new era in 1981 and introduced a V6 turbo powered car. Although the engine produced plenty of power the 126CK chassis was not quite as good but, in Villeneuve’s hands, Ferrari took two races wins including Monaco, the first for a turbo car in the modern era.

1982 saw a new car designed by Harvey Posthelthwaite which gave their drivers a chassis which could match the engine. However it proved to be a tragic season with Villeneuve losing his life in qualifying at the Belgium Grand Prix and Pironi having an accident which would end his career during practice in Germany. Finishing the season with replacement drivers Patrick Tambay and Mario Andretti, Ferrari won the constructors title.

For 1983 Ferrari had an all French driver line up with Rene Arnoux joining Tambay. Tambay won one race and Arnoux 3 giving Ferrari a 2nd consecutive Constructors title. Michele Alboreto joined Arnoux at Ferrari for 1984 and managed a solitary win at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Arnoux was dismissed from the team after only 1 race in 1985 and was replaced by Swede Stefan Johansson. Alboreto was leading the Drivers championship at the half way point of the season but unreliability cost him the title as he failed to finish the last 5 races of the season.

Ferrari failed to win a race in 1986. For 1987 Gerhard Berger took Johansson's seat and and proved his worth by winning the last two races of the season. Berger won the Italian Grand Prix in 1988 and was the only driver, other than Prost and Senna in McLaren's, to win a race that year.

Nigel Mansell was singed to partner Berger in 1989 and won the opening race of the season. He won again in Hungary and Berger won in Portugal but the Ferrari cars were outclassed by the McLaren machines.

The 90's

1989 World Champion joined Mansell at Ferrari for 1990. Prost and Senna diced for the drivers title through to the Japanese Grand Prix where his hoped were ended when Senna drove into him as they braked for the first corner on the first lap.

Mansell Left Ferrari in 1991 to be replaced by Jean Alesi. Ferrari failed to win a race and Prost's criticism of the team resulted in him being replaced for the last race of the season by Gianni Morbidelli.

1992 to 1995 were lean times for Ferrari win only two wins, Berger in Germany 1994 and Alesi Canada 1995 before double World Champion Michael Schumacher joined the team from Benetton for 1996.

The Schumacher Era

Schumacher won 3 races for Ferrari in 1996 and in 1997 was joined by ex-Benetton engineers Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn. It proved to be an astonishingly successful partnership. Between 1997 and 2006, when Schumacher retired, they dominated the sport. From 149 races Schumacher won 63, took 51 poles, 43 fastest laps and 98 podiums. Schumacher won 5 five successive Drivers Titles between 2000 and 2004 and the team took the Constructors Title from 1999 to 2004.

During his time at Ferrari he was partnered by Eddie Irvine, '96 to '99, Rubens Barrichello, 2000 to 2005, and Felipe Massa for his final season. The period wasn't without controversy as Schumacher had a clause in his contract classifying him as Number 1 driver and on a number of occasions his team mates were required by the team to move aside and let Schumacher gain a higher place resulting in a change to the regulations by the FIA outlawing team orders.

Schumacher retired at the end of 2006 having placed 3rd and 2nd in the Driver title race to Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.

From 2006

Kimi Raikkonen took on the task of filling Schumacher's place in the team for 2007 and duly won the Drivers Title and Ferrari the Constructors. 2008 saw Felipe Massa lose out on the title to Lewis Hamilton as Hamilton took the 5th place he needed two corners from the end of the last race of the season. Ferrrai had the consolation of the Constructors Championship.

Raikkonen and Massa raced together in 2009 and Raikkonen took a single win at the Belgian Grand Prix. Massa was injured in a freak accident at the Hungarian race and his place was taken by Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fischella. The replacement drivers showed the short comings of the Ferrari 056 chassis and were some distance behind Raikkonen in the races they competed in.

Double World Champion Fernando Alonso took Raikkonen's place for 2010 and, like Mansell in 1989, won a place in the hearts of Ferrari supporters by winning his first race. With 5 wins through the season, including Ferrari’s home race in Italy, he was challenging for the title through to the final round but could only manage 7th in Abu Dhabi losing out on the title to Sebastien Vettel by 4 points.

2011 sees Ferrari continue with Alonso and Massa as their drivers and have named their car the F150th Italia to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italy's foundation as a nation.

 

[FB]

Strangely, I was just thinking the same thing

 

[Kewee]

Hey cider_and_toast try doing this, I find it helps a lot...

Comparing Vettel and Alonso, considering one is ex-Ferrari and the other is about to start racing for Ferrari is a lot more relevant to the topic than your quoted posting.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Sorry Kewee I don't want to get into a fight with you...

 

[Kewee]

Thank you Mephistopheles, we should make the peace, I'd like to believe we've both got something worthwhile to contribute to CTA. Threads seem to wander off topic a little more during the off-season when there's not so much to talk about. Cheers Meph. ​

 

[Il_leone]

Vettel's reputation is under close scrutiny - his whole attitude about this year's cars because of the change in the regulations as soon as he find he could be in for a tough time he spent time whingeing and moaning that he is going to have the easy lights to flag wins... and he's going to have earn his victories the hard way


If you want to compare what JYS and Clark did which I believe is slightly unfair

JYS won three world titles with Tyrell team BUT

1969 - Officially credited as MATRA because the team were using the MATRA Chassis
1971 - Tyrell Chassis
1973 - Tyrell Chassis

Tyrell had a fall out with Matra which mean they used a March chassis for 1970 season until their own chassis became available

- The racing back in the 70's was immensely close no one driver or team would completely dominate the season - it was very close racing then

- they did not disappear into the distance after leading the first corner



- secondly when JYS retired the Tyrell team never really recovered to be the front running team they were whether this was also affected by Cevert's death is debateable

Clark - he won all his races in the Lotus but he was the fastest driver in the 60's and anything he drove was quick . He had already won the title in 1965 and even had time to go off to Indy500 and win the race. Some say he needed Colin Chapman to help him by his side . He lost 1964 title at the last race due to mechanical failure and lost out on 1967 title due to the brilliance of Brabham who were able to outsmart Lotus in their own chassis that not even he could overcome the deficiency with his natural speed.


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Back to modern day Vettel's reputation is under scrutiny because only Schumacher and Alonso has left Ferrari with his reputation improved post 1983 of all the drivers that have driven for Ferrari

Massa and Barrichello were good drivers but both were turfed out like many by the politics including the great Prost

So it will be interesting to see how Vettel deals with the politics which will only come to light if Ferrari aint winning .. Schumacher had Todt fighting his corner and the results speak for themselves... even ALonso can see he was fighting a losing battle in the end

 

[Il_leone]

Vettel won with Toro Rosso using a Red Bull chassis not their own. Vettel does need to prove himself because look at the list of teammates he raced and beat only won of them had won races - Webber


What Vettel needs to show is he can lead Ferrari without Newey designing the car which I forgot might have also factored in his decision to go seeing Adrian is not designing next year's Red Bull

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Alonso's reputation at Mclaren is also on the line if he gets thrashed badly by Button given the differences in pay and it will hurt him as well if Vettel manages to win at Ferrari whilst he is working hard and achieving little at Mclaren despite his claims that he is willingly to wait

It will be fascinating to see how they get on with their new teams. I'm waiting to hear some disparaging remarks about Alonso's time at Ferrari 's current team principal and elevating Vettel . It did not do the last team principal any good criticising Alonso's efforts

 

[cider_and_toast]

I'm tired of hearing all this "he has to prove himself" bullcrap. As I've posted above Jim Clark won two titles in two of the most dominent cars of the era. Fangio would take any drive that would win him a title and even had team mates hand over their cars. Schui had every conceivable advantage going for him, Button had the double diffuser, Mansell had the most techno car F1 had seen to that point. We could form an argument about any world champion. Win the world title and you have **** all left to prove.

What you do have though is a reputation. That is created by and destroyed by the press and the public. Alonso's reputation in the UK is low because of the number of Hamilton supporters, Vettel's I would say is mixed. If Vettel succeeds at Ferrari where Alonso couldn't then that's a reputation buster right there.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

 

[Il_leone]

Fangio is the only driver to win in 4 different teams and the only one who has successfully defended his world title driving for a different team

Driver's reputations are made and destroyed by the decisions they make which also helps to define their greatness

If Vettel had beaten Ricciardo at least despite not having the best car than that would have been at least acceptable because he was expected to do so then the opinion would be he needed a new challenge and he would not gain anything else from staying at Red Bull

But being resoundingly beaten feels like he's running scared and jumping ship at first opportunity.

I will compare Vettel's situation with Nelson Piquet jnr back in the 80's. Piquet took the first opportunity to leave Williams take Honda engines and the money to Lotus because he did not like Mansell beating him because he felt he should have got preferred treatment . Unfortunately Lotus was on the decline and Senna who left for Mclaren made the team better than it should be.
The yard stuck was Nakajima was a a pay driver that Senna thrashed.. Piquet on the other hand did not display the same dominance over Nakajima which made people question Nelson's abilities even more and add to the fact that both Senna and Mansell were getting better praises from the press.

Vettel faces the same conundrum against Raikkonen who was dispatched by ALonso with ease and his reputation is at risk. I just realised that what Alonso is doing could be mirroring Senna in 1988 as well

 

[Mephistopheles]

Jean Alesi's decision to go go Ferrari was an unmitigated disaster, he could have been one of F1's true greats instead of a single race winner..

 

[Il_leone]

Mephistopheles considering he thought it was a good idea to sign every paper and get Ferrari to buy him out and also missed out on a potential championship winning car in Williams . It has to be one of the most foolhardy decisions ever made being teammate to Prost as well

 

[Kewee]

I know this is off topic but I'll post it because it compliments the discussion.
Sometimes elevating a drivers reputation and creating his place in history is beyond his control. Had Ron Dennis backed Alonso in 2007 there's no doubt he would have become the first driver since Fangio in the 50's to win back to back titles with different teams. That was one of the saddest outcomes of their falling out. That was a one off opportunity that was lost and considering it took nearly 60 years for a driver to place himself in that position it may never happen again in our lifetime. Just the fact he won the chance to achieve that deserves recognition.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Whereas I do believe that Alonso should have been given number one status against a rookie in 07 it isn't because of some nondescript record that no one really cares about it is simply because he was a world champion up against a rookie and it was his right to have number one status because he had earned that right, end of...

 

[cider_and_toast]

Absolutely true and surely that was shown by McLaren at Monaco when Hamilton was told quite clearly to follow Alonso home. That's what started Hamilton's moaning and bleeting that he was faster and could have won. The events of that season are long and complicated.

Vettel has to do better than Kimi next season for his reputation to remain intact. Alonso must do the same against Button.

The real issue is what sort of car and engine Ferrari can produce. Winless seasons for Ferrari, regardless of the era or car performance are rare and back to back winless seasons are even more rare. While it needs a marked improvement, Ferrari's stated aim of two wins next year should be a realistic target and it should only be Vettels name on both trophies.

 

[Kewee]

cider_and_toast..... and Alonso stated the following year he could have driven away from Hamilton. Whether that's true or not, a more important point was both their engines had to last another GP in Canada a fortnight later which was their third GP on those engines. Hamilton, by pushing the pace put both cars under threat and should have got a dressing down privately afterwards. That never happened of course and at the risk of getting up peoples noses I'll quote Sir Jackie again when he said, "Alonso drove the perfect weekend, fastest in practice, followed by pole position, fastest lap and the race win". In Sir Jackies words, "the right person won the race". Of course that compliment should have come from within the team, it didn't and was the beginning of the unravelling of Alonso's relationship with the team.
Of course Ron Dennis's recent comments are very telling. I personally think he should have kept quite but I'm guessing he felt like he owed Alonso considering Alonso has had the blame for 2007 levelled at him almost entirely. Ron Dennis's recent comments were clearly aimed at spreading the blame for 2007 among all the parties including himself when he said he handled the situation badly. He then followed up by levelling some of the blame at Hamilton which probably would have been better left unsaid.

This is all well in the past now of course. I'm looking forward to a new season hopefully with the teams more evenly matched. In saying that I can't see Ferrari making much ground until 2016.

 

[FB]

Back to the subject of Ferrari (as exciting as the Alonso love in is) apparently Ferrari have looked long and hard at the Merc of 2014 and have:

• split the turbocharger
• copied the Merc nose design
• push rod suspension
• improved cooling
• single pillar rear wing
• new engine cover/rear end to utilise the exhaust gases

It would appear Ferrari are looking to make the perfect car for 2014.

 

[Kewee]

Ferrari really need to become innovative. Copying the Mercedes will make them quicker than they have been but they will still be on the back foot in terms of being quicker than them. I'm sure McLaren will be trying to develop points of difference that will lead to an advantage as they move forward with their program. The same will almost certainly apply with Williams. I'm picking the car launches will be fascinating during January and for those teams who launch at the first test. Can't wait till testing begins.

 

[Andyoak]

Unfortunately Ferrari aren't renowned for innovation. It was fine when they had unlimited testing to go with a massive budget but now...

 

[cider_and_toast]

It always makes me laugh how teams always seem to jump on the bits of a winning design they think make the difference and then copy it so that every design option ends up converging. Maybe the split turbo idea is not the ideal sollution, maybe there is a better way of packaging the unit that has yet to be discovered that would prove far better.... Nah, sod that, if it worked for Mercedes last year its bound to work for us.

On the one hand they complain about the lack of opportunity to improve the design of their engines and on the other, when they do get that opportunity, instead of designing they just copy.

 

[FB]

Maybe not the Merc nose, looks a bit more Red Bull. Maybe Adrian's been doing a bit of "consultancy" work.