Ferrari SpA

Ferrari is the Formula One World Championship. They have been in the sport the longest of any of the constructors and is the iconic symbol of Formula One.

After many years with Williams Nigel Mansell was tempted away to the Ferrari team alongside Gerhard Berger for the 1989 season to drive the new John Barnard designed Ferrari 640. The coke bottle shaped 640 had a revolutionary gearbox controlled using a paddle shift on the steering wheel and was designed to speed up the gear changes and eliminate damage to the gearbox and engine by misshifts. Testing through the winter had shown that the system worked well, but it was prone to poor reliability due to its complexity. The team also returned to their heritage by producing a V12 normally aspirated engine for the new rules. The Ferraris were expected to be quick but not be able to last a full race, so it was a surprise when Nigel Mansell won on his debut for the team and the semi-automatic gearbox debut. At the San Marino Grand Prix Gerhard Berger was involved in a massive crash at the Tamburello and the 640 caught fire after it came to rest. Berger survived the accident but missed several races due the burns to his hands. Mansell went on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and Berger won in Portugal. After their 1988 domination McLaren still had an advantage over the field though and Ferrari finished a long way behind them in second in the constructors championship. Mansell was highest Ferrari driver in fourth in the drivers title.

The big announcement for 1990 was that '89 World Champion Alain Prost would join the team after falling out with Senna, Berger left the team to fill his place at McLaren. Winter testing showed that the Ferrari was a very quick car and appeared to have an advantage over the McLaren which pleased Prost immensely. However, at the first Grand Prix in Phoenix the Ferrari's were off the pace of McLaren and surprisingly Alesi in the Tyrrell. Both cars retired from the race with engine problems. At the next race Prost bounced back to win and Mansell fourth as the cars returned to the Interlagos circuit since the 70's, it looked like Ferrari and McLaren could battle it out for the championship. Prost's best race of the year would be in Mexico where he started thirteenth on the grid and battled through the field to take the win whilst Mansell took Berger round the outside of the 180º banked Peraltada corner to take second. This started a dominant phase for Ferrari with Prost taking the next two Grand Prix. At the last of these three victories Mansell would retire from the British Grand Prix and announced that he would retire from the sport at the end of the year. He stated that he was unhappy with the treatment he got from Ferrari when Prost joined which seemed to be born out by the eight retirements he'd suffered compared to Prost's two. Mansell said he would try to help Prost win the world championship and he played a good supporting role for the rest of the season. It seemed to be clear that Ferrari were incapable of producing two championship challenging cars. Ferrari would win twice again that year with Mansell winning in Portugal and Prost taking the Spanish Grand Prix. Going into the Japanese Grand Prix Prost and Senna both had a chance of taking the drivers title but going into the first corner at Suzuka Senna collided with Prost and took them both out and won the drivers championship. Ferrari would lose the constructors championship to McLaren again, but this time it was closer.

Jean Alesi joined Ferrari for 1991 and Mansell moved to Williams after they persuaded him to stay in Formula One. Ferrari started the year with the 1990 641 chassis, but it was uncompetitive and Senna opened up a large championship lead by winning the first four Grand Prix. Ferrari suffered a major embarrassment at the race closest to home when Prost spun off and retired on the warm up lap of the race and Alesi retired in the gravel on lap early in the race. Ferrari were also demoted from their second team slot by Williams when they solved their reliability problems. The new 642 chassis arrived at the French Grand Prix and was eagerly awaited by Prost and Alesi, it was narrower and sleeker than the old 640/641 chassis. Prost put it to good use by leading twice during the Grand Prix and finishing second in the car's debut. The new car wasn't very reliable though and retired as often as it finished. Prost was starting to become disillusioned with the team and its inability to produce a top car. He started to criticise the team openly and team boss Claudio Lombardi fired him before the Australian Grand Prix. He was replaced for that race by Italian Gianni Morbidelli who finished sixth in a soaking race which was ended on lap 14. Ferrari weren't to win a race that year and finished third in the constructors championship a long way behind McLaren and Williams.

For 1992 Ferrari signed promising Italian Ivan Capelli to join Alesi. Harvey Postlethwaite rejoined the team to design the chassis after a successful spell with Tyrrell. The season was dominated by the Williams drivers with Mansell taking the drivers title by the Hungarian Grand Prix. The only two other teams that were at all competitive were McLaren and Benetton, the '92 Ferrari was uncompetitive and Capelli was off the pace for some unknown reason. He was replaced by Nicola Larini before the end of the year. Ferrari ended the year fourth in the constructors championship with just twenty one points and just two podium finishes. John Barnard rejoined the team in August to head up a Ferrari funded design base in England, so that chassis were designed in England and assembled in Italy by a production team headed by Postlethwaite. Berger rejoined the team for '93 alongside Ferrari who was still searching for his first Formula One victory. The '93 season was again dominated by Williams (now headed by Prost) with McLaren and Benetton biting at their heels. Again the Ferraris were uncompetitive and gained just three podiums from the season with fourth in the constructors. In July Montezemolo hired Jean Todt as sporting director from Peugeot where he had won rally and sportscar titles as team boss, Postlethwaite left the team soon after this. The first Ferrari designed by Barnard's Ferrari Design and Development base looked to improve the teams performance. Berger was greatly effected by the loss of his friend Senna at Imola, but fought on and took victory at the German Grand Prix. Ferrari moved up a place in the constructors championship, beating McLaren to third place and taking eleven podiums.

Berger and Alesi continued with the team for the 1995 season driving the 412T2 chassis and were more competitive than the previous season. However, the season was dominated by Michael Schumacher, now driving a Renault powered Benetton. However, Alesi took his first victory with an emotional win at the Canadian Grand Prix, he had been trying very hard to win for Ferrari since joining the team five years ago and took it at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. That was the high point of the season and Ferrari again finished third in the constructors championship with one victory and eleven podiums in total. Ferrari pulled off a big coup by signing Michael Schumacher for the 1996 season. Schumacher had just won back to back titles with the Benetton team and looked likely to stay with them for some time. However, he was drawn by the potential of making Ferrari a great team again after five years without a chance of winning a championship. Jean Alesi was offered the chance to drive as his number two and turned it down, disgusted that he would be treated thus after five loyal years with Ferrari. He decided to go to Schumacher's old team Benetton and drive with Berger, Eddie Irvine was signed to replace Alesi.

At the end of the year Eddie Irvine decided that he had enough of being second driver at Ferrari and moved to the new Jaguar Racing team as their lead driver. He was replaced at Ferrari by another Jordan driver, Rubens Barrichello. Again it was a fight between Ferrari and McLaren for the world championship, Schumacher won the first three races to open up a good lead in the championship and then Coulthard won a cold British Grand Prix with Hakkinen dominant in Spain. Schumacher, Coulthard and Hakkinen battled out the world championship, but Schumacher came out on top after winning the last four races. Barrichello gained his first win with victory at the German Grand Prix. Schumacher was drivers world championship for the first time since his victory with Benetton in 1995 and Ferrari had followed up their constructors title of the previous year with another victory. Michael Schumacher started the 2001 season with two victories to open up an early lead again in the championship. As well as battling McLaren for wins the Williams-BMW team were also competitive now and Ralf Schumacher won the San Marino Grand Prix for them. However, it was clear that Ferrari had a clear advantage. Schumacher went on to win nine GPs and started on pole position eleven times.

It looked like McLaren and Williams could challenge the Ferrari team if they managed to increase their competitiveness. Hakkinen had retired from the McLaren team at the end of the 2001 season and was replaced by fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen. But Schumacher and Ferrari were even more dominant in 2002 with eleven victories which is a record in Formula One. However, Schumacher and Ferrari lost some of their support through the year with their arrogant disregard of the fans. At the Austrian Grand Prix Barrichello led Schumacher for the entire race, but was asked by boss Jean Todt to pull over and let Schumacher through for the points. This wasn't necessary considering the lead Schumacher had in the championship at the time and it was clear Rubens Barrichello wasn't happy with this decision. He decided to pull over on the last lap just before the finish line and produced derision from the crowd who booed the Ferrari pair on the podium. Even worse, Schumacher decided to fix the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis so that it was a dead heat and mucked it up allowing Barrichello the win. Barrichello got to grips with the Ferrari more than in 2001 and took four victories (including the gifted US GP). Ferrari easily won the constructors title for the third season running.

For 2003 Ferrari were again expected to dominate the season. The only thing that could change things was a change to the rules, one of these was a change to the points system designed to make the championship last longer by giving less of an advantage to a Grand Prix winner. It was introduced on the back of providing more points to lower finishes with points down to eight place instead of sixth. This was said to benefit the smaller teams and make their plight look more beneficial for potential sponsors. What it did do was make the 2003 championship go all the way to the last race. Again, Michael Schumacher won the drivers title, but this time he only won six Grands Prix. Ferrari had started the season well with Schumacher taking victories a the San Marino, Spanish and Austrian Grands Prix, but a mid season spurt from the Williams team put Juan Pablo Montoya into the championship. Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen was racking up points with podium after podium (and one victory in Malaysia). Going into the Italian Grand Prix Ferrari were on the back foot and Raikkonen or Montoya looked favourites to win the title, but Ferrari bounced back and took a dominant victory effectively ending Montoya's championship challenge. Schumacher followed this with another victory at the US Grand Prix with Raikkonen second. Going into the final race at Suzuka Schumacher led the championship by nine points from Raikkonen who needed victory with Schumacher eighth or lower for the title. It was expected that Schumacher would easily win the title. However, Schumacher was off the pace and trailed home eighth, Barrichello took victory and denied Raikkonen the title.

After the close championship finish of 2003 McLaren and Williams were hopeful that they had a chance of fighting for the title, Renault were also in the ascendancy with Alonso taking his first win the previous season. However, Ferrari fought back to easily take the drivers and constructors titles for the fifth and sixth years respectively. The unlikely challenger for the championship came from BAR who had found pace after switching from Bridgestone to Michelin. Jenson Button had dominated team leader Jacques Villeneuve the previous season and inherited the team leader status and was joined by young Japanese driver Takuma Sato. Button's smooth style suited the chassis and the car worked well on the Michelin tyres. He was one of the few drivers who challenged Schumacher at several races, but never took that elusive win eventually finishing third in the drivers championship behind Schumacher and Barrichello. By the end of the year only three drivers beat a Ferrari to victory all year. Jarno Trulli took his first victory with an excellent win at Monaco after Schumacher wrecked his car behind the safety car. Kimi Raikkonen took victory at the Belgian Grand Prix and Montoya wo the final race in Brazil. Otherwise, Ferrari completely dominated with Schumacher taking thirteen victories (beating his own record of 2002) and Barrichello won two). Ferrari easily won the constructors championship.

After several years of domination Ferrari went into 2005 confident that their F1-2005 chassis would be a frontrunner. The FIA had introduced new rules designed to reduce the amount of downforce available to the cars, so the new cars sprouted small wings, turnups and unusual shaped wings to try and claw back some of this downforce. At the first Grand Prix in Australia it looked like they still were competitive with Barrichello finishing second behind Fisichella's Renault. But at the next two races Ferrari were off the pace and the blame seemed to be on Bridgestone who didn't seem to have produced a tyre capable of lasting the race like the Michelins. However, at the next race the Ferari/Bridgestone combination seemed to be spot on, Ferrari weren't able to challenge for pole, but once Schumacher was released from the queue of cars ahead of him at the first pitstops he sped up behind the leaders and picked them off setting times almost a second and a half better than the leader. Alonso fought him off for twelve laps and won the race. Strangely, this wasn't the Ferrari come back that everybody expected as the two Ferraris were usually fighting for low points places at most of the rest of the Grands Prix expect when Schumacher magic put the car higher up. A win by default at the US Grand Prix where all the Michelin runners pulled out leaving a six car field was the only consolation. Before the end of the year Rubens Barrichello announced that he had signed for the Honda F1 team for 2006 and Ferrari soon announced that Felipe Massa would replace him in the 2006 V8 powered Ferrari. Barrichello had been one of the longest serving drivers in Ferrari with six years with the team.