F1-Blog

Ferrari is possibly the biggest and most recognized of all the manufacturers in F1.

The Scuderia Ferrari team was founded in 1929 by Enzo Ferrari to sponsor and prepare racing cars (mostly Alfa Romeo cars), it was not until 1946 that Ferrari built road going cars to fund the race team (the 125 S).

The Ferrari team was one of the very first teams to join and race in the first season of Formula 1 in 1950 and have raced in it ever since (with brief periods of non involvement due to funding etc). In fact the only other manufacturer still racing today that was around in the same era as Ferrari / Alfa is the Mercedes-Benz team (although only engine suppliers today)

Albert Ascari won the championship for the team in the 1952 season, and Ferrari have been graced with almost every legendary driver to have graced the F1 circuit, these include people like Tazio Nuvolari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Phil Hill, Mike Hawthorn, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve, Gerhard Berger, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Jean Alesi and Michael Schumacher. In fact the only glaringly obvious omission is the mighty Ayrton Senna.

In 1957 Castelotti was killed in an accident testing and the Marquis de Portago crashed his Ferrari into the crowd at the Mille Miglia killing 12 spectators which resulted in Enzo being charged with manslaughter. In 1958 Ferrari fought back though with the then brand new 246 Dino. The car proved fast but unforgiving killing Musso at the French GP and Collins at the mighty Nurburgring. The then 3rd driver for the team Mike Hawthorn announced his retirement from the sport after winning the championship, but unfortunately died in a road accident just a few months later.

In 1960 the team again showed off a new car. The rear engined 246 was introduced at the Monaco GP but proved slow and unreliable. This prompted a new rear engined 156 to be introduced the following year; this however was designed for the new 1.5ltr formula. The 'shark nosed' 156 was a huge success for the team, and in the hands of Hill and Von Trips. It also proved handy under the control of Baghetti, who was the first person to win his maiden GP. The year ended badly for the team though. Hill and Von Trips were neck and neck for the championship and it was decided when Von Trip crashed killing himself and 14 other spectators at Monza.

The 1964 an1965 seasons where dominated by the then more technically advanced Lotus cars, however 1965 was the last year of the 1.5ltr regulations which allowed Ferrari to use the V12 engine from its sports cars in the 1966 F1 challenger. This however proved to be a bad idea with both Ferrari's own 2.5ltr V6 and the 2.5Ltr Tasman cars being quicker in race conditions.

Unfortunately for Ferrari this was also the dominant era for the mighty Cosworth DFV (my personal favorite engine of all time). Ferrari could just not match either its performance or its bulletproof nature.

To try to combat the English challenge many internal changes where made in both the management and the race team itself. Jacky Ickx was hired for the 1968 season, but the Ferrari race car was again out performed by all the Cosworth powered cars, and at the end of the season Ferrari sold its road car business to Fiat for $11million.

The 1970 season saw Ickx rejoin the team, and a new Ferrari flat 12 engine was developed for the car. The engine at first looked to be another lemon, however towards the end of the season all the bugs had been worked out and it was one of the fastest cars on the grid. Something however seemed to go wrong in the 1971 and 1972 seasons. The updated 312 car that brought Ickx to second in the 1970 championship was again struggling. Enzo decided that a shake up was needed and hired Luca di Montezemolo to run the team with Niki Lauda as the talent behind the wheel. This proved a great success as the 312B3 car started to win races again allowing the team to finish second in the championship behind the McLaren team. 1975 brought the 312T (Traverse gearbox) and this won five times in Lauda's hands and brought him the title.

The 1976 season brought Lauda's legendary Nurburgring incident. After winning four of the first six races of the season he crashed and was dragged from the burning wreck by other drivers. He however made a miraculous recovery and only six weeks after the terrifying crash he was racing again at Monza. He however withdrew from the Japanese race in the rain, and so James Hunt took the title.

Lauda again took the world title the following year in the 312T2, but Lauda had already signed a contract to race for Brabam the following season. Enzo did not take this well and Lauda did not race the final two races of the season; instead he was replaced by a rising start Gilles Villeneuve.

In 1978 Ferrari again struggled as Lotus had introduced the famous Lotus 79. This car was the first of the 'Ground Effect' cars and left all the other teams floundered as they just could not match its pace. However Ferrari retaliated in 1979 with the 312T4 a car that although not a match for the Lotus in the aero stakes had a lot more power in the flat 12 and so Ferrari where again dominant with Jodi Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve. Jodi won the championship that year, but it was close between the two team mates.

In 1980 the Ferrari's where nowhere. The English teams proved that aero efficiency was more than a match for power, and the 312T5 was without a doubt one of the worse cars on the grid. However Turbo chargers had started to make a rise in F1, and Ferrari designed the 1.5ltr Turbo charged 126C for the 1981 season. The car again was not able to hold a candle to the English teams in aero stakes, but the engine was an amazing achievement outperforming everything else on the grid. Ferrari took 2 wins that year just on the back of the engine. Part way through the year Harvey Postlethwaite was brought into the team and the following season's redesigned 126C2 was a much more competitive package, however Gilles Villeneuve was unfortunately killed in a qualifying accident at Zolder and Pironi ran into the back of another car in the rain at Hockenheim. Patrick Tambay and Mario Andretti took helm of the cars and managed to win the constructors championship for Ferrari.

The 80's brought McLaren-TAG domination, and Ferrari struggled through. They hired the then McLaren designer John Barnard. Towards the end of the year Barnard insisted the team move from the 1.5ltr engine to a V12 design. This caused huge rows inside the Ferrari camp with Enzo eventually overruling and backing Barnard's decision. Enzo unfortunately died shortly after, and Fiat took over control of the racing team. Ferrari did however have a 1-2 finish at Monza after Senna retired his McLaren (the only non McLaren win of the year). At the end of the 1988 season Ferrari started to look for a replacement for Barnard and also hired a new driver in Nigel Mansell.

Barnards 641 wins in the hands of Mansell on its first outing in 1989 at the Brazilian GP. The 1990 and 1991 seasons where not good for Ferrari, these seasons saw the McLaren-Honda team being all dominant. Towards the end of the year Fiat decided to put Luca di Montezemolo back in charge of the whole Ferrari Empire, they also rehired Postlethwaite as chief designer. This however did not help and Ferrari bought in Barnard at the end of the 1992 season again.

This did not help in the 1993 season though when the Williams-Renault team made it look far too easy. Jean-Todt was named head of the racing outfit and Postlethwaite left the team under a cloud.

The 412T2 was a better car showing genuine pace at times, but was still not quite up to the challenge. However that all seemed to start to turn around when Ferrari tempted Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine over to the team. The F310 had a woeful time, suffering with gearbox issues, Schumacher managed to win three times. At the end of the season Rory Byrne was hired and along with Schumacher seemed to shake the Ferrari team up.

The 1998 Byrne car was not quite the match of the McLaren-Mercedes of Hakkinen, it did win six races with Schumacher at the helm proving things where indeed getting better at Ferrari. 1999 brought Ferrari the constructors’ title after a tight battle. 2000 saw Rubens Barrichello join Schumacher and helped him to his third Drivers title. 2001 through 2004 saw Ferrari's dominance increase, with them winning and breaking almost all the records held to that point.

2005 however saw the Ferrari team struggle to change to the new rules. The Bridgestone tyres certainly did not help their cause. But other teams seemed to adapt to the new rules in a better fashion. This resulted in Ferrari loosing both crowns to the Renault team.

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