Formula 1’s oldest and most famous team is also its most successful, with 215 wins, 16 constructors’ championships and 15 drivers’ titles.
The Prancing Horse has undergone numerous facelifts and revamps over the years, and has seen all sides of the sport: slumps, triumphs and tragedies in equal measure. For many – particularly the vocal Italian ‘tifosi’ fanbase – Formula 1 without Ferrari is almost unthinkable.
Its current incarnation is one of its most intriguing. There’s a partial return to Latin roots after the departures of the ‘outsiders’ – French team boss Jean Todt, British designer Ross Brawn and German superstar Michael Schumacher, who together moulded the most dominant team Formula 1 has ever witnessed. Between 1997 and 2004 they notched up 74 wins, six constructors’ championships and five drivers’ titles.
Although there were two more constructors’ titles in 2007 and 2009, and the drivers’ title for Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, the new Ferrari – under the stewardship of Italian Stefano Domenicali – has still yet to totally recapture its dominant form. Spanish double champion Fernando Alonso could be the man around which Ferrari resumes its title-winning ways. He was right in the thick of the title fight in 2010, and after an astonishing second-half of the year he only just missed out on adding a third drivers’ title when the team faltered at the final race.
In years gone by, the strategy error in the Abu Dhabi season-finale that cost the team the 2010 title would have caused it to self-combust. The fact that Ferrari has merely honed its approach for 2011 bodes well. Constructors title aspirations will depend on the re-emergence of Felipe Massa. The Brazilian had a poor 2010 in the shadow of Alonso, who likes his team mate to be quick but not too quick. If he’s fast and he upsets Alonso the reaction of Ferrari could be critical.
Fernando AlonsoFelipe Massa