Scuderia Ferrari SpA
| Based in: Maranello, Italy Founded: 1946 (active since 1950) Website: http://www.ferrariworld.com/ Chairman: Luca Di Montezemolo Managing director: Jean Todt Technical director: Ross Brawn Chief designer: Giancarlo Colombo (1950-1951), Aurelio Lampredi (1952-1956), Vittorio Jano (1952-1959), Carlo Chiti (1960-1964), Mauro Forghieri (1965-1981), Antonio Tomaini (1981), Harvey Postlethwaite (1982-1987), John Barnard (1988-1990, 1993-1996), Steve Nichols (1991-1992), Rory Byrne (1997-2005), Aldo Costa (2005-...) Team manager: Stefano Domenicali |  |
The most evocative name in Grand Prix, and the only team to have contested every year of the championship, always in their traditional red livery.
For several yeas now Ferrari have been losing the race when it comes to keeping apace with the technological advances being made within Formula 1, however with the arrival of Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and of course Michael Schumacher, the Prancing Horse now seems to have got its act together once more and for the first time in many years the team looks like it could actually live up to its glorious past.
The team was founded by Enzo Ferrari, a former racer and manager of Alfa Romeo's racing team from 1930-37 but a disagreement saw him leave in 1938. Although he built his first car in 1940, this wasn't known as a Ferrari, as Enzo had agreed not to race under his own name for a further five years, so the first true Ferrari didn't appear until 1946. Early models were known by the displacement size of each cylinder and it is fair to say that Ferrari's priority lay with engine first and chassis second.
Over the years a total of eight drivers titles have made their way to Maranello but the last was in 1979. Between then and the arrival of Luca di Montezemolo in 1992 Ferrari were in a real mess. The route from that sorry state to a team that could challenge for the 1997 title has rarely been an easy one, but among the changes that have worked three factors stand out. Firstly the team hired Jean Todt as team manager. Todt was known as 'the man that could' over at Peugeot where he ran their racing team. He joined Ferrari in 1993 bringing with him a formidable reputation for organisational efficiency.
Next the engine department was persuaded to move away from traditional thirsty V12s to the more efficient and lighter V10 engine. The final piece in the puzzle was the hiring, with a reputed fee of $25 million, of twice world champion Michael Schumacher. Schumacher brought more than just driving ability. He joined the team with his own ideas and his own agenda. His aim was to mould the team around him with one aim in mind; to return the Scuderia to the top of the Formula 1 tree. To that end he arranged for Brawn and Byrne to join him from Benetton and these three, guided tactically by Todt, with Montezemolo controlling the strategic flow, lie at the core of a team that can once more reach for the top.
1998 began with Ferrari announcing that this was their year. Schumacher remained with the team with Eddie Irvine as team-mate for the third year running. The all new Ross Brawn designed F300 was great - for a Ferrari - but it wasn't a real match to the McLaren and once more the Prancing Horse was left struggling, although they did get very close. Ferrari's title race was lost early in the season with several retirements and a lack of pace compared to the McLaren. 'Flying finn' Mika Hakkinen won the championship while Ferrari were clearly upping their game. In 1999, the new Byrne-designed Ferrari was a lot better and Schumacher looked set to stroll on to his 3rd world championship until he broke his leg in a Silverstone crash. A Ferrari brake failed because of an engineer's error. Hakkinen won his second championship while Schumacher's teammate Irvine became vice champion.
Having forgotten the problems of 1999, the F2000 was a dominant car and started a new F1 era. Michael Schumacher easily won the first of his Ferrari powered World Championships. He and his new team mateRubens Barrichello won Ferrari the Constructors' title in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Michael won five consecutive Drivers' titles pulverising most of the F1 records. The dominance and the attitudes it engendered meant that the team's tactics became very unpopular, the first backlash coming in Austria in 2002 when team orders dictated the result. The fans rebelled. By the end of 2004 the team was politically isolated in F1 and in 2005 was unable to compete with Renault and McLaren.
Halfway through the season the developments were halted in order to be back on top in 2006, and although they weren't quite yet at the beginning of the season, Michael Schumacher came close to an 8th world title before retiring from F1 at the end of the season. Felipe Massa proved in the second half of the year that he is an excellent racer and is joined by Kimi Raikkonen for 2007, an extremely promising driver pairing.
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