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| Scuderia Ferrari |
"Scuderia Ferrari"
No marque encapsulates the glamour, style and thrill of Grand Prix racing like Ferrari. It is the only constructor to have contested every world championship, but the magic of Ferrari is not based on mere longevity, or even success on the track. When Michael Schumacher lifted the title in 2000, the beginning of a five-year period of domination, it ended a 21-year barren streak; yet even when Ferrari found race victories, let alone championship, hard to come by, it remained the brand with the greatest cachet in motor sport...
Enzo Ferrari enjoyed moderate success as a driver with Alfa Romeo in the 1920s. At a race in Ravenna in 1923, an Italian couple presented him with a badge which their fighter pilot son had carried with him during WWI. It bore the famous prancing horse motif - an emblem of spirit and power - which would become synonymus with Ferrari.
"Split With Alfa"
Enzo Ferrari's first foray into team ownership came in the 1930s, when he began running semi-works Alfas from a base in Modena. With the legendary Tazio Nuvolari at the wheel he enjoyed some success against the mighty German marques which dominated that era. By 1939 Ferrari harboured plans to go his own way, but the outbreak of war deferred the appearance of the first true Ferrari for almost a decade. The debut came at the 1948 Monaco GP, Ferrari running a remodelled V12 sports car.
In 1949 Ferrari signed Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi from rivals Maserati, further strengthening a driver line-up that already icluded Raymond Sommer and Giuseppe Farina. Farina departed to Alfa for the inaugural world championship the following year and lifted the title. Ascari finished fifth in what was a transitional season, Ferrari moving from the supercharged 125 to an unblown 4.5-litre unit. By the end of the year it was on the pace with the dominant Alfa 158, and being less thirsty than the supercharged Alfetta, things looked good for 1951. Alfa squeezed home in that title race too, but this time with Ascari and Jose Froilan Gonzales breathing down their necks. The "Pampas Bull" gave Ferrari its first championship win that year, at Silverstone. Ascari won the next two rounds to complete a hat-trick for the marque.
"Ascari Dominant"
Alfa's withdrawal left the way clear, and a Ferrari crossed the line first in every European round of the 1952 championship, Ascari becoming the team's first world champion. Five more victories in 1953 saw him retain his crown.
Ferrari fell behind when the 2.5-litre formula was introduced in 1954, but the arrival of Fangio two years later gave the marque its third championship. That was with a modified version of the Vittorio Jano- designed Lancia D50, Ferrari having taken the car over when Lancia withdrew from F1 in 1955. Lancia-Ferraris also appeared in 1957, but it was in the new Dino 246 that Mike Hawthorn pipped Stirling Moss to lift the 1958 title.
"Sharknose"
Ferrari was one of the last embrace the rear-engined revolution, but in 1961, with the introduction of the 1.5-litre formula, it ruled the boost with the new V6 "sharknose". Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips fought a thrilling championship duel, which the American won after von Trips fatal accident in the penultimate round at Monza. That took the gloss off Ferrari's first Constructor's title, three years after the introduction of that award.
John Surtees snatched the title from Graham Hill and Jim Clark in Mexico, the climax of the 1964 season, but when the 3-litre era arrived in 1966, Ferrari struggled. In 1970 Jacky Ickx gave Ferrari the runner-up spot when he failed to overhaul Jochen Rindt's points total, the Austrian having lost his life at Monza. Clay Regazzoni finished third that year, and four years later it was the Swiss's turn to narrowly miss out as Fittipaldi got the better of him in a final- race decider.
"The Lauda Era"
Niki Lauda was Ferrari's unheralded second- string at the start of that year; by the end he had established his racing credentials, and in 1975 he cruised to the title, Ferrari's first in 11 years. Lauda lost out by a single point to James Hunt in the famous 1976 Ferrari-McLaren battle, in which the Austrian recovered from the horrific fireball crash at the Nurburgring. Consistency brought Lauda and Ferrari another championship in 1977, and two years later the team scored a championship one-two, emulating the successes of 1952 and 1961. This was the dawn of the ground-effect era, and although the Ferrari 312T4 wasn't at the head of the new game, it was strong and reliable, and in Gilles Villeneuve and Jody Scheckter the team boasted a hugely talented driver line-up. The South African took the championship, garnering 4 more points than his Canadian team-mate.
"Enzo's Death"
There were two Constructor's titles in the 1980s, but by the time Enzo Ferrari died - in 1988 at the age of 90 - McLaren and Williams were enjoying greater success. Alain Prost did win five races in 1990, the year in which he clashed with former McLaren team-mate Senna at Suzuka, an incident which handed the crown to the Brazlian. Prost was driving the John Barnard-designed Ferrari 641 that year, but it was over the next decade that the team would lay the groundwork that would put Ferrari back to the forefront of F1. Frenchman Jean Todt, who had led Peugeot to a string of sports car titles, joined as team principal in 1993. A trio of ex-Benetton men, who had won back-to-back world championships in 1994 and 1995, were then recruited to the Maranello cause. Rory Byrne took over from Barnard as chief designer, Ross Brawn was installes as technical director, and in Michael Schumacher the team had the man who had succeeded Prost and Senna as the best in the business.
"Five-year Juggernaut"
In 1977 Schumacher went a step too far in trying to secure his first title with Ferrari, failing in his attempt to take Jacques Villeneuve out in the decider at Jerez. Three years later Schumacher won nine races as Ferrari edged McLaren into the minor placings. There was yet another Constructor's title, too, Maranello's first double for 21 years. For the next four years Ferrari pulverised the opposition. Apart from 2003, when the team's winning margin was 2 points in the Driver's championship and 14 in the Constructor's race, the gaps were enormous. In 2002 Schumacher notched a record 144 points to take the title in the shortest time ever, and Ferrari became the first team to break the 200-point mark. Two years later the team raised the bar still further as the champion scored 148 points and Ferrari 262, more than double the total of runners-up BAR. After ceding the crown to Renault for two years, Ferrari was back on top in 2007, Kimi Raikkonen's championship victory helping Maranello secure yet another double...