Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the common name for the Gestione Sportiva, the division of the Ferrari
automobile company concerned with racing. Though the Scuderia and Ferrari Corse Clienti continue to manage the racing activities of numerous Ferrari customers and private teams, Ferrari's racing division has recently devoted its attention and funding to its Formula One team, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.
Ferrari first competed in F1 in 1950 (the team's first F1 car was the Tipo 125 F1), making it the oldest and most successful team left in the championship. The team's current drivers are Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa, and its test drivers are Luca Badoer and Marc Gené. The team principal is Jean Todt, and its technical director is Ross Brawn. Ferrari is one of five F1 teams currently using Bridgestone tyres (the other 6 using Michelin).
The team's numerous and ardent Italian fans have come to be known as tifosi.
Scuderia Ferrari is Italian for "Ferrari Stable", though the name is liberally translated as "Team Ferrari."
History
1929-1950
Scuderia Ferrari was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929 as a sponsor for amateur drivers in various races, though Ferrari himself had raced a bit in Fiat cars before that date. The idea came about on the night of November 16 at a dinner in Bologna, where Ferrari solicited financial help from Augusto and Alfredo Caniato, textile heirs, and wealthy amateur racer Mario Tadini. He then gathered a team which at its peak included over forty drivers, most of whom raced in Alfa Romeo cars; Enzo himself continued racing, with moderate success, until the birth of his first son Dino in 1932.
Ferrari managed numerous established drivers (notably Tazio Nuvolari, Giuseppe Campari, Achille Varzi and Louis Chiron) and several talented rookies (such as Tandini, Guy Moll, Carlo Pintacuda, and Antonio Brivio) from his headquarters in Viale Trento e Trieste, Modena, Italy, until 1938, at which point Alfa Romeo made him the manager of the factory racing division, Alfa Corse. In 1939 he left Alfa upon learning of the company's intention to buy him out and absorb the Scuderia; his company became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which manufactured machine tools until the expiration of his four-year promise of non-competition after leaving Alfa.
Despite his agreement with Alfa, Ferrari immediately began work a racecar of his own, the Tipo 815 (eight cylinders, 1.5-liter displacement). The 815s, designed by Alberto Massimino, were thus the first true Ferrari cars, but after Alberto Ascari and the Marchese Lotario Rangoni Machiavelli di Modena drove them in the 1940 Mille Miglia, World War II put a temporary end to racing and the 815s saw no more competition. Ferrari continued to manufacture machine tools (specifically oleodynamic grinding machines); in 1943 he moved his headquarters to Maranello, where in 1944 it was promptly bombed.
Rules for a Grand Prix World Championship had been laid out before the war but it took several years afterward for the series to get going; meanwhile Ferrari rebuilt his works in Maranello and constructed the 12-cylinder, 1.5-liter Tipo 125, which competed at several non-championship grands prix.
50s
Ferrari debuted in Formula One in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix with a supercharged version of the 125 V12, and two experienced and successful drivers, Alberto Ascari and Gigi Villoresi. The Alfa Romeo team dominated the 1950 Formula One season, winning all eleven events, but Ferrari broke their streak in 1951 when rotund driver José Froilán González took first place at the 1951 British Grand Prix. Ferrari also won the 1951 Mille Miglia but was drawn into a lengthy litigation when Ascari crashed through a barrier and killed a local doctor.
After the 1951 Formula One season the Alfa team withdrew from F1, causing the authorities to adopt the Formula Two regulations due to the lack of suitable F1 cars. Ferrari entered the 2000cm³ 4-cyl Ferrari Tipo 500, which went on to win almost every race in which it competed in the 1952 Formula One season with drivers Ascari, Giuseppe Farina, and Piero Taruffi; Ascari took the World Championship after winning six consecutive races. In the 1953 Formula One season, Ascari won only five races but another world title; at the end of that season, Juan Manuel Fangio beat the Ferraris in a Maserati for the first time.
The 1954 Formula One season brought new rules for 2.5-liter engines; Ferrari's new car, designated the Ferrari Tipo 625, could barely compete against Fangio with the Maserati and then the Mercedes-Benz W196 which appeared in July. Ferrari had only two wins, Gonzalez at the 1954 British Grand Prix and Mike Hawthorn at the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix. In 1955 Formula One season Ferrari did no better, winning only the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix with driver Maurice Trintignant. Late in the tragic 1955 season the Ferrari team purchased the Lancia team's D50 chassis after they had retired following Ascari's Death; Fangio, Peter Collins, and Eugenio Castellotti raced the D50s successfully in the 1956 Formula One season: Collins two races, Fangio won three races and the championship.
In the 1957 Formula One season, a constructor championship was introduced, and won by Vanwall. Fangio returned to Maserati. Ferrari, still using its aging Lancias, failed to win a race. Drivers Luigi Musso and the Marquis Alfonso de Portago joined Castellotti; Castellotti died while testing and Portago crashed into a crowd at the Mille Miglia, killing twelve and causing Ferrari to be charged with manslaughter.
For the 1958 Formula One season, Carlo Chiti designed an entirely new car for Ferrari: the Ferrari 246 Dino, named for Enzo Ferrari's recently deceased son. The team retained drivers Collins, Hawthorn, and Musso, but Musso died at the 1958 French Grand Prix and Collins died at the 1958 German Grand Prix; Hawthorn won the World Championship and announced his retirement, and died months later in a road accident.
Ferrari hired five new drivers, Tony Brooks, Jean Behra, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, and occasionally Cliff Allison, for the 1959 Formula One season. The team did not get along well; Behra was fired after punching team manager Romolo Tavoni. Brooks was competitive until the end of the season, but in the end he narrowly lost the championship to Jack Brabham with the rear-engined Cooper.
60s
1960 Formula One season proved little better than 1959. Ferrari kept drivers Hill, Allison and Wolfgang von Trips and added Willy Mairesse to drive the dated front-engined 246s and Richie Ginther, who drove Ferrari's first rear-engined car. Allison was severely injured in testing and the team won no race. A Ferrari did win 24 Hours of Le Mans, however, with Paul Frere and Olivier Gendebien driving.
In the 1961 Formula One season, with new rules for 1500cm³, the team kept Hill, von Trips and Ginther, and debuted another Chiti-designed car, the Ferrari 156 based on the Formula 2 car of 1960, which was dominant throughout the season. Ferrari drivers Hill and Von Trips competed for the championship. Giancarlo Baghetti joined in midseason and became the first driver to win on his debut race (the 1961 French Grand Prix). However, at the end of the season, von Trips crashed at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix and was killed, toghter with over a dozen spectators. Hill won the championship. Ferrari also won Le Mans again, with Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill driving.
At the end of the 1961 season, in what is called "the walk-out", car designer Carlo Chiti and team manager Romolo Tavoni left to set up their own team, ATS. Ferrari promoted Mauro Forghieri to racing director and Eugenio Dragoni to team manager.
For the 1962 Formula One season, Hill and Baghetti stayed on with rookies Ricardo Rodriguez and Lorenzo Bandini. The team used the 1961 cars for a second year while Forghieri worked on a new design; the team won no race. It did, however, continue to dominate at Le Mans, winning with the same team of Hill and Gendebien.
Ferrari ran smaller lighter 156 cars for the 1963 Formula One season, this time with drivers Bandini, John Surtees, Willy Mairesse and Ludovico Scarfiotti. Surtees won the 1963 German Grand Prix, at which Mairesse crashed heavily, rendering him unable to drive again. Despite the team's lack of success in Formula One, it kept up its winning streak at Le Mans with Bandini and Scarfiotti at the wheel.
The new 158 model was at last finished in late 1963 and developed into raceworthiness for the 1964 Formula One season, featuring an eight-cylinder engine designed by Angelo Bellei. Surtees and Bandini were joined by young Mexican Pedro Rodriguez, brother of Ricardo (who had been killed at the end of 1962), to drive the new cars. Surtees won two races and Bandini one; the Ferrari was slower than Jim Clark's Lotus but its vastly superior reliability gave Surtees the championship and Bandini fourth place. In the last two races in North America, the Ferrari were entered by private team NART and painted in the US-color scheme of blue and white, as Enzo protest against the Italian sporting authority. Ferrari's sports car department won Le Mans for the fifth time in a row, this time with drivers Jean Guichet and Nino Vaccarella.
The 1965 Formula One season was the last year of the 1.5-liter formula, so Ferrari opted to use the same V8 engine another year together with a new flat-12 which had debuted at the end of 1964; they won no races as Clark dominated in his now more reliable Lotus. Surtees and Bandini stayed on as drivers, with odd races for Rodriguez, Vaccarella and Bob Bondurant. Entered by private Ferrari team NART, Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory won the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours, Ferrari's sixth in a row, though it would prove to be its last victory at that race.
For the 1966 Formula One season with new rules, the Ferrari 312 of Surtees consisted of a 3-liter version of the 3.3-liter V12 which they had previously used in Ferrari P sports car racers, mounted in the back of a rather heavy F1 chassis. Bandini drove a 2.4-liter V6 early in the season. Surtees won one race, the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix, but departed after a row with manager Eugenio Dragoni; he was replaced by Mike Parkes. Scarfiotti also won a race, the 1966 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, with an improved 36-valve engine.
In the 1967 Formula One season, the team fired Dragoni and replaced him with Franco Lini; Chris Amon partnered Bandini to drive a somewhat improved version of the 1966 car. At the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix Bandini crashed and suffered heavy injuries when he was trapped under his burning car; several days later he succumbed to his injuries. Ferrari kept Mike Parkes and Scarfiotti, but Parkes suffered career-ending injuries weeks later at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix and Scarfiotti temporarily retired from racing after witnessing his crash.
The 1968 Formula One season was better; Jacky Ickx drove with one win in France and several good positions, which gave him a chance at the World Championship until a practise crash in Canada, and Amon led several races but won none. At the end of the season, manager Franco Lini quit and Ickx went to the Brabham team. During the summer of 1968, Ferrari worked out a deal to sell his road car business to Fiat for $11 million; the transaction took place in early 1969, leaving 50% of the business still under the control of Ferrari himself.
During 1969 Formula One season Enzo Ferrari set about wisely spending his newfound wealth to revive his struggling team; though Ferrari did compete in Formula One in 1969, it was something of a throwaway season while the team was restructured. Amon continued to drive an older model and Pedro Rodriguez replaced Ickx; at the end of the year Amon left the team.
70s
After four poor years, Ferrari signed Niki Lauda in 1974 with him winning the drivers championship easily the next year in the Ferrari 312T. In 1976 Lauda was also on course to win the title for Ferrari until his crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix. Carlos Reutemann was hired as a replacement, so with Clay Regazzoni driving the other car, Ferrari had to run 3 cars in the 1976 Italian Grand Prix when Lauda returned unexpectedly soon. He took the title again for Ferrari in 1977 before leaving due to mutual lack of confidence.
In 1978, Ferrari raced with Carlos Reutemann and Gilles Villeneuve. Jody Scheckter replaced the Argentinian in 1979, and the team won both titles again with Scheckter.
80s
After finally having a competitive car and two fast drivers that competed against each other, team leader and favorite driver of Enzo Ferrari, Gilles Villeneuve died in a crash during qualifying at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix, while Didier Pironi suffered career-ending injuries before the 1982 German Grand Prix. Four wins by René Arnoux and Michele Alboreto scored another constructor title in 1983.
In 1982 the Formula One works moved partially out of the original Maranello factory into its own autonomous facility, still in Maranello but directly next to the Fiorano test circuit.
On August 14, 1988, Enzo Ferrari died at the age of 90. FIAT's share of the company was raised to 90%.
90s
The 1990s started in a promising way with Alain Prost winning 5 races and pushing Ayrton Senna to the controversial final race, where a collision forced him to settle for second. After that it was a rapid downhill slide with no wins in 1991, 1992 or 1993, with Prost leaving calling the car a "truck". Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi did salvage some pride by winning a race each in 1994 and 1995. One of the reasons for this failure was the fact that Ferrari's famous V12 engine was no longer competitive against the smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient V10s of their competitors.
In 1996, Ferrari made a landmark decision in its history by hiring two-time defending world champion Michael Schumacher for an astronomical salary of around $30 million a year. Schumacher also brought with him the nucleus of his hugely successful Benetton team, mainly in the form of Ross Brawn (technical director) and Rory Byrne (chief designer). Teaming up with Jean Todt (team principal), they set about rebuilding the Scuderia. After Berger and Alesi, who were sent to Benetton in exchange, the traditional V12 had to go also, in favour of a more modern V10 engine, as the rules reduced the capacity from 3500cc to 3000 anyway. At the same time, Eddie Irvine from Jordan was hired.
While these huge changes did result in a very unreliable car, Schumacher did manage to score 3 wins in the 1996 season before going on to challenge Jacques Villeneuve for the 1997 title. However Michael was disqualified from the 1997 standings for swerving into the path of Villeneuve who was trying to overtake him in the final race, which would have cost Schumacher the championship he lost anyway. 1998 was another successful year for the Scuderia, as once again Schumacher was challenging for the championship until the final race before losing out to Mika Häkkinen. The Belgian Grand Prix saw dramatic crashes that year, including Schumacher hitting Coulthard while lapping him.
Irvine had been forced to play second fiddle to Schumacher, losing out on points and positions in order to place Schumacher higher in the Drivers' Championship, in the rare occasions when he was in front. The leg injury of Michael in 1999 reversed the roles however. It appeared to be the year Ferrari would regain the championship with Ferrari winning 3 of the first 4 races of the season. While Ferrari did win the constructor crown that year, a crash at the Silverstone Circuit in the British Grand Prix resulted in Schumacher breaking a leg and missing 7 races of the season. The new championship challenger was Eddie Irvine, who once again took the Ferrari challenge to the final round in Japan before missing out to Häkkinen who also scored more points in the races were Schumacher had taken part.
2000s
In 2000, Schumacher had a close battle with rival Mika Häkkinen of McLaren, and managed to edge out the Finn to the title, winning 9 races out of 17 that year. He was Ferrari's first driver champion in 21 years, since Jody Scheckter in 1979. Teammate Barrichello finished 4th in the championship, taking his maiden win at the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring.
In 2001 Schumacher won the World Championship easily with 4 races to go, having claimed 9 victories. Teammate Barrichello finished 3rd in the championship. This was the first year in which the notorious A1-Ring incident occurred, where Barrichello was told to let Michael through for 2nd place by team boss Todt, to the consternation of the FIA, fans and media.
In 2002, Schumacher and Ferrari dominated F1, the Ferrari duo winning 15 out of 17 races (Schumacher 11, Barrichello 4), a record at the time. However, their run was tainted by a second A1-Ring incident. In a replay of 2001, Barrichello was asked to give way to Schumacher, except this time for the win. An embarrassed Schumacher then pushed Barrichello to the top step of the podium, and was subsequently fined $1 million by the FIA for interfering with podium procedures. This debacle eventually led to the banning of team orders. Schumacher matched Juan Manuel Fangio's record of 5 world championships, set back in the 1950s.
In 2003, Ferrari's domination of F1 was brought to a halt at the first race, the Australian Grand Prix, where for the first time in 3 years, there was no Ferrari driver on the podium. Rivals McLaren had an early lead in the championship, but Ferrari closed the gap by the Canadian Grand Prix. However, their other rivals Williams won the next 2 races and the driver championship went down to the wire at the last race, the Japanese Grand Prix, between Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren) and Michael Schumacher (Ferrari); Schumacher eventually won the championship by 2 points from Räikkönen, surpassing Fangio's record.
2004 saw a return of Ferrari's dominance. Ferrari teammates Schumacher and Barrichello finished first and second respectively in the driver championship, and Ferrari easily wrapped up the constructors championship. Schumacher won 13 of the 18 races, and 12 of the first 13 of the season -- both F1 records. Barrichello won two of the other races.
2005 has seen a massive change of fortune for the previously dominant Ferrari. The team's practice of starting a new season with a modified version of the previous year's car (F2004M) pending full development of their new car (F2005) has been one of the main causes for a poor start to the season. While this worked well in previous years, it seems Ferrari underestimated both the full effect of the new 2005 regulations and the pace of development of other teams (particularly McLaren and Renault who started the year with brand new cars). Alarmed by poor performances in Australia and Malaysia the new F2005 was rushed into service in Bahrain (the introduction was previously scheduled to be race 5 in Barcelona). This move saw Schumacher retire for the first time due to mechanical failure since Hockenheim 2001 ending a run of 59 Grands Prix without technical failure.
The other factor has been the poor relative performance of the team's Bridgestone tyres, which have failed to give performance for single lap qualifying and failed during races. However the tyre's provided for San Marino Grand Prix were more competitive than Michelin's offering and the Bridgestone tyres supplied for the United States Grand Prix allowed the three Bridgestone teams to race, while the seven Michelin teams were forced to retire due to Michelin's advice that the tyres would not last the race distance.
2006 Season
With the "one set of tyres per race" rule no longer in use, Ferrari, after a poor 2005 and a troubled start to 2006, were again close contenders for both Drivers' and Constructors' titles by the latter part of the 2006 season. Unlike some recent seasons, they started 2006 with their new car, the 248 F1.
At the Bahrain Grand Prix Schumacher finished second, with Massa further down the order. At the Malaysian Grand Prix problems with the engine's piston rings meant that both drivers had to change their engines, Massa needing two changes (a ten-position penalty at the start of the race is enforced for an engine change prior to a legal engine change). In Australia, they scored no points, with both drivers crashing out of the race.
At the San Marino Schumacher took pole position in qualifying and won the race. At the European race, Schumacher won again, the first time this season the same engine won two consecutive races. At the Spanish Grand Prix Fernando Alonso won, with Schumacher finishing second.
At Monaco Schumacher's qualifying times were deleted for stopping his car during the qualifying session. Schumacher started from the back of the grid but finished fifth for four points. At Silverstone Schumacher finished second from third place on the grid. The podium of the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal was: Alonso as race winner, Michael Schumacher second, and Räikkönen third.
At the United States Grand Prix, in Indianapolis, the Ferrari's of Schumacher and Massa were dominant all weekend. Ferrari achieved its first one-two (both of the team's cars finishing in the top two positions) since the same race 12 months beforehand. At the French Grand Prix with a second consecutive one-two in qualifying. In the race Alonso finished second with Massa taking third.
At the Hockenheimring in Germany Räikkönen took pole position in his last German Grand Prix for McLaren (he was signed by Ferrari for 2007). However in the race both Ferrari 248F1's overtook Räikkönen at the first round of pit stops, and subsequently Schumacher went on to win. At the Hungarian GP Massa qualified 2nd and Schumacher 11th due to a 2 second penalty from Saturday practice. At the start of the wet race the Ferraris initially struggled. Later in the race Schumacher continued to drive on intermediate tyres while other drivers on dries like Pedro de la Rosa (who replaced Juan Pablo Montoya at McLaren following his return to Chip Ganassi Racing Stateside for other racing duties) and Nick Heidfeld passed him easily. When Heidfeld passed Schumacher he collided with the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica, and retired in 9th, promoting Massa to 8th. The subsequent disqualification of Kubica gave Massa 7th and Schumacher 8th, with two and one championship points, respectively.
At Turkey, Massa achieved his first ever pole and victory. What looked like a Ferrari 1-2 was disrupted by a caution which came out after Vitantonio Liuzzi's spin at Turn 1. Ferrari chose to stack Schumacher in the pits behind Massa (each team can use only one pit box, and cannot pit both cars at once). Renault were able to pit Alonso and he rejoined in second place. The three finished in this order.
At Monza, Schumacher scored a win in Ferrari's home Grand Prix, while Massa's solid fourth-place run was spoiled late when he ran over debris left behind by the failure of Alonso's Renault V-8, puncturing a tyre and forcing him to pit, which left him mired in ninth place at the finish. Despite Massa not being able to score any points, the combination of Schumacher's win, Alonso's DNF, and a mediocre fourth-place finish for Giancarlo Fisichella allowed Ferrari to pull ahead of Renault in the World Constructors Championship for the first time in the 2006 season.
Following the race at Monza Ferrari announced Schumacher's retirement effective at the end of the 2006 season and that Räikkönen, whom they had signed months before, will replace him in 2007.
At the Chinese Grand Prix Ferrari and the other Bridgestone-running teams again suffered in wet conditions. However, Schumacher managed to qualify ahead of Michelin drivers and seven places ahead of the next Bridgestone car. Despite taking pole position and setting the fastest lap, a poor tyre choice by Renault and a pit stop error allowed Schumacher to beat Alonso, his main rival for the Championship.
At the Japanese Grand Prix, Ferrari again showed superiority in the qualifying stages, lapping up to 1.4s faster than the nearest competitors. Massa qualified 1st and Schumacher 2nd. However, in the race it was revealed that over a race distance the Bridgestone tyres caused problems. Alonso capitalised on Massa's early puncture and took 2nd place. On lap 34 Schumacher suffered his first in-race engine failure since 2000, forcing him to retire. Alonso won the race and opened a 10-point lead in the driver's championship with only one race to go. Massa finished 2nd, but with Renault's Fisichella in 3rd place.
At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Ferrari showed a stunning performance with the Renault team playing it safe in order to avoid any break downs in their cars. Qualifying was a mixed bag for Ferrari with Massa clinching pole position, but Schumacher suffering a fuel pressure problem in the last qualifying session which left him unable to put in even a single lap in this session. Schumacher ended up at 10th on the grid with Massa on pole, Räikkönen 2nd, Trulli of Toyota 3rd and the championship leader Alonso at a comfortable 4th. The race itself was a dramatic one, with Schumacher making up 4 places in the first few laps, and then a safety car period followed. Once the race restarted Schumacher suffered a tyre puncture while trying to over take the Renault of Fisichella. This puncture virtually ended Schumacher's bid for the race lead and any hope of winning the 2006 Drivers' title. The final result saw the first victory for a Brazilian driver in home soil since Ayrton Senna in 1993. With Massa finishing 1st, Alonso 2nd, clinching the Drivers' title, followed by Honda's Jenson Button, who finished 3rd after putting in an impressive performance from 14th on the grid. Schumacher, after a stunning drive from the back of the grid (following his puncture), ended up 4th, but with Fisichella finishing 6th the Ferraris lost the Constructors title too.
Michael Schumacher retired at the end of the season and Kimi Räikkönen replaced him. Felipe Massa will continue his seat after a successful season.
2007 Season
The 2007 car was secretively unveiled on January 14 2007 with a ban on photographers, and testing continued the next day, with many tests outside of Europe in order to evade sponsorship bans because of their Marlboro sponsorship. Over the course of pre-season testing, the F2007 and its drivers have improved considerably and have headed the timing sheets at multi-team tests on various occasions. Kimi Räikkönen won the inaugural race of the 2007 season in a Ferrari F2007 at Albert Park becoming the first Ferrari driver to win on his début since Nigel Mansell. Ferrari attracted some criticism for running a moveable floor system in Melbourne, later confirmed to be illegal by the FIA after a rule clarification, though no punishment was applied. After a disappointing Malaysian Grand Prix, the team recovered to finish first and third in Bahrain, with Massa taking his first victory of the season. Since then, however, the team has fallen behind McLaren and its drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in both championships.
The Salzburger Nachricht newspaper has quoted Luca Colajanni on the team's disappointing performance. The Ferrari PR manager claimed the team's factory owned wind tunnel was badly damaged in a testing accident, when a steel sheet conveyor belt, representing the road under the down-scaled F1 car replica, broke up at high speed and splattered debris at various instruments. Although the Ferrari team had received prior warning from F1 analysts to secure the use of an alternative, backup testing facility and/or invest more in computer simulations, such advice would appear not to have been heeded. The Ferrari team were not able to introduce new aerodynamic refinements to its cars until the wind tunnel was rebuilt, which took several weeks. Meanwhile, the Scuderia remains severely handicapped against McLaren. With the tunnel now rebuilt and a new aerodynamic package (notably adjustments to the front wing) the cars are seemingly on par with the McLarens, after rigorous testing at Silverstone Ferrari are predicted to be strong in Europe in upcoming races. It has been reported[1] that a major aero upgrade is due for the upcoming event at Fuji. Recently they have resolved the problem of the front tyres not heating up quickly enough. On the 8 July, Kimi Räikkönen dominated the British Grand Prix at Silverstone with Massa coming 5th after stalling on the lights, he was placed 22nd in the pit-lane and made an unbelievable come back.
Ferrari went to the European GP with arguably the fastest car, Kimi claimed pole position with Felipe third. At the start of the race, rain hit the track causing many cars to slide around because they weren't on intermediate tyres, this cause everyone to go and change in the pits, Kimi was heading for the pits when he veered off and continued on track by himself, leaving Felipe to pit, to stop a pile up and allowing Alonso who was in second place to take the lead. When Kimi came out of the pits, he re-joined third, and began to hound Alonso down by 0.5secs per lap, while Felipe was leading the way by a long margin. Around Lap 30, Kimi retired with hydraulic problems, leaving Felipe the sole remaining Ferrari, he led the way for the majority of the race, but on the last 5 laps, he was overtaken by Alonso, due to the fact that rain had hit the track in the last 7 laps, after Felipe pitted for wet tyres, he experienced large vibrations through the car which caused him to be extra cautious, he ended the race second, and 11 points a drift in the driver's championship to leader Lewis Hamilton.
The following Hungarian Grand Prix was riddled with scandal within the McLaren team. The team technicians forgot to fuel the car of Felipe Massa who was forced to start the race 14th, at a track where overtaking is very difficult. Kimi was going to start the race fourth, but following Fernando Alonso's relegation, he was moved up to third. He was also able to pass BMW's Nick Heidfeld on the start. He would remain second till the end of the race, though challenging leader Hamilton on occasion. Felipe Massa came home 13th following a lacklustre performance.
At the Chinese Grand Prix, Ferrari achieved its 200th Formula One victory, and 599th and 600th Formula One podium finishes, by Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa, respectively.
Kimi Räikkönen went on to win the 2007 Driver's Championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix by one point from Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
Espionage allegations
On 3 July Nigel Stepney was dismissed by Scuderia Ferrari. Later the same day Ferrari announced it was taking legal action against Stepney and a McLaren engineer named by Autosport.com as Mike Coughlan; A Ferrari press release stated: {{cquote|Ferrari announces it has recently presented a case against Nigel Stepney and an engineer from the Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes team with the Modena Tribunal, concerning the theft of technical information. Furthermore, legal action has been instigated in England and a search warrant has been issued concerning the engineer. This produced a positive outcome.
On his return from holiday in the Philippines on July 5, Stepney was interrogated by the Italian police as part of the industrial espionage case. On 6 July Honda F1 released a statement confirming that Stepney and Coughlan approached the team regarding "job opportunities" in June 2007. Since the revelation of Coughlan's involvement in the affair McLaren provided a full set of drawings and development documents (estimated to be around 800 pages) to the FIA, detailing all updates made to the team's chassis since the incident occurred at the end of April.
McLaren was eventually excluded from the 2007 Conctructors' Championship, in breach of Article 151(c) of the International Sporting Code, all but guaranteeing Ferrari the title. Ferrari won their 15th Constructors Title in Belgium the following weekend.
At the end of the season Ferrari would have finished 1 point ahead of McLaren and hence won the constructor's title on merit. This takes into consideration that McLaren was docked the 15 constructors' points they would have earned at Hungary, as a penalty for a qualifying pit incident; prior to that McLaren had a 27 point lead over Ferrari.
2008 Season
On 12 November 2007, the Ferrari team announced that Jean Todt would be departing the team principal role, instead taking up a senior executive role. His replacement is to be Stefano Domenicali. It has been reported that this completes a shift in Ferrari personnel where the older foreign leadership is replaced with a new one comprised mostly of Italians.
On 6th January, Scuderia Ferrari launched the Ferrari F2008.
On the 2008 Season first race the 2008 Australian Grand Prix qualifying Kimi Räikkönen suffered a fuel pressure problem which forced him to stop on the entrance of pit lane, giving no chance to engineers to repair the car. He started in 16th place on the grid. Massa qualified in 4th place, behind Lewis Hamilton, who took the Pole position with Robert Kubica and Heikki Kovalainen in 2nd and third respectively. On the race Felipe Massa spun and grazed the wall in the first corner, forcing him to pit for a new front wing. Kimi Räikkönen elevated himself from fifteenth to seventh. Later on, in the twenty-fifth lap, Felipe Massa collided with Red Bull Racing's David Coulthard, putting the Scotsman out of the race and forcing Massa to pit again. He retired several laps later with engine failure. Räikkönen also suffered the same fate retiring on the 54th lap. He finished 9th overall after completing 90% of the race but he got 1 point after Rubens Barrichello was disqualified for ignoring a red light at the pit exit. It was Ferrari's worst performance in a season-opening race since they drew a blank in the 1992 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami with France's Jean Alesi and Italian Ivan Capelli. One notable point is that every Ferrari-engined car in the Grand Prix( including Scuderia Toro Rosso's and Force India's cars) either crashed out on the first corner, or retired before the end of the race with engine problems. This may suggest that there is a problem with the current engine in those cars.
Sponsorship
Marlboro has sponsored Ferrari since 1984 and has been title sponsor since 1997 (prior to which it was the title sponsor of McLaren). In September 2005 Ferrari announced they had signed an extension of their sponsorship arrangement with Marlboro (Philip Morris) until 2011. This comes at a time when tobacco sponsorship has become illegal in the European Union and other major teams have withdrawn from relationships with tobacco companies, for example McLaren ended their eight year relationship with West. In reporting the deal, F1 Racing magazine judged it to be a "black day" for the sport, putting non-tobacco funded teams at a disadvantage and discouraging other brands from entering a sport still associated with tobacco. The magazine estimates that in the period between 2005 and 2011 Ferrari will receive $1 billion from the agreement. Depending on the venue of races (and the particular national laws) the Marlboro branding will be largely subliminal in most countries (see image).
The Taiwanese computer company Acer is one of their sponsors (until 2008). As part of the deal, Acer had sold Ferrari-badged laptops.
In December 2005 Vodafone announced that it was withdrawing its sponsorship of Ferrari in favour of title sponsorship of McLaren beginning in 2007. The Times said Ferrari were "stunned" by the decision. Vodafone's position on the car is assumed by Telecom Italia's broadband Alice brand.
Other companies sponsoring Scuderia Ferrari include: Fiat (car group), Shell - Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Alice, Bridgestone, AMD, Martini, Acer, and several others among which Mubadala Development Company (an investment company owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi) also owner of 5% of Ferrari's stakes as of the 2007 season.
Apart from sponsors, Ferrari have the following companies as official suppliers: Magneti Marelli, Mahle, IIR, SKF, Europcar, Iveco, NGK, Infineon, HN Meccanica, Puma, Sanbitter, Tata, Brembo, BBS, Selex, Sabelt, TRW Automotive, Microsoft (note: the sponsors/suppliers information is accurate for the 2007 season).
Ferrari's sponsorship earning for the years 2000-2005 were made public (http://www.myfilehut.com/userfiles/50511/21st/FerrariSponsors.pdf)
Records
The Ferrari team has achieved unparalleled success in Formula One. Ferrari cars and Ferrari drivers have also won the Mille Miglia 8 times, the Targa Florio 7 times, and the 24 hours of Le Mans 9 times. In F1, the Italian team has the unique distinction of owning nearly all significant records (as of the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix), including:
- Most constructor championships: 15
- Most driver championships: 15
- Most wins (all-time): 201
- Most wins (season): 15 (tied with McLaren)
- Most podiums (all-time): 603
- Most podiums (season): 29
- Most pole positions (all-time): 195
- Most points (all-time): 4,754.27
- Most points (season): 262
- Highest winning percentage: ~26% (for teams with at least 10 wins)
In 2004, Ferrari also surpassed Ford as the most successful F1 engine manufacturer, with 182 wins (to Ford's 176 wins). Due to the availability of the Cosworth V8 to private teams, a total of 6,639 Ford-powered cars were entered between 1967 and 2004, compared to 1,979 starts for Ferrari and Petronas-badged engines during the same period.
Video
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| Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team F60 2009 |
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External links
- The official Ferrari website
- 2008 Ferrari Team Interview Videos
- Ferrari's facilities at Maranello with Fiorano test track are at coordinates Template:Coord
- TheScuderia.net - The original and biggest Ferrari F1 community.
- Ferrari 1 - The most popular online Ferrari Formula 1 enthusiasts community
- The Prancing Horse - A Ferrari news and fan resource website
- F1 Rejects article on Ferrari history from 1979 to 2000
| Ferrari Formula One cars | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 40s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||||||||||
| 125 | 275 340 375 |
500 | 553 625 |
555 D50 |
801 | 412 246 |
256 | 156 | 158 1512 |
312 | 312 B | 312 T | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||||||||||||
| 312 T | 126 C | 156/85 | F1/86 | F1/87 | 640 | 641 | 642/643 | F92A | F93A | 412T | F310/B | F300 | F399 | F1-2000 | F2001 | F2001 F2002 |
F2002B F2003-GA |
F2004 | F2004M F2005 |
248 | F2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||