A detailed look at the profile of Scuderia Ferrari – Formula 1
Formula 1 team Ferrari have been the most successful and oldest team in the sport. Since its inception, Ferrari have won 16 Formula One World Championships and has secured 205 pole positions.
In the 2011 Formula 1 World Championship, Ferrari finished the season as the third best team with 375 points behind McLaren and Red Bull Racing.
Ferrari traces its roots deep down in the history when Enzo Ferrari, a lover of cars and auto-racing, led the foundations of Scuderia Ferrari in 1929.
Ferrari joined Formula 1 in 1950 and next year, Jose F. Gonzalez marked Ferrari’s first grand prix victory in Britain.
The Scarlet team have been a dream team for every driver in Formula 1 at some point in their careers. The history has witnessed many veteran drivers who belonged to team.
Many Ferrari drivers have left their marks in the history of Formula 1. In 1950s, Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel and Mike Hawthorn won the Formula 1 drivers’ championships. In 1960s, Phil Hill and John Surtees won the championships. In 1970s, Niki Lauda, Jody
Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve won the crown of the drivers’ championship.
Ferrari’s history in Formula 1 is full of glorious triumphs but it did face some severe crisis during 1982 when Villeneuve died. After winning the 1983 constructors’ championship, Ferrari entered into its darkest phase in history.
However, the light came to Team Ferrari in 1996 when Michael Schumacher joined the team. In 1999, Michael Schumacher missed six rounds due to a broken leg at Silverstone but the team won the constructors’ championship.
It was from the year 2000 to 2004 when the team re-wrote the history of Formula 1 Championship by winning consecutive drivers’ championships, which was the longest victory streak in the history of the sport. Ferrari had made itself the most dominant team
in the world at that point.
Mostly, the success of Ferrari is attributed to Michael Schumacher. However, it is important to mention the accomplishments of Jean Todt in the team, who joined Ferrari in 1993 and with his profound expertise and knowledge of auto-racing, he made some of
the most crucial decisions for the team which helped Ferrari to regain its legacy.
It was Todt who made the decision of hiring Schumacher including the technical director, Ross Brawn and the designer, Rory Byrne into the team. The decision proved out to be a great success when the team won the constructors’ championship from 1999-2004
and drivers’ championships from 2000-2004.
In 2005, Ferrari faced some severe issues with the regulations regarding the tyres and Michael Schumacher lost the crown as they were not able to compete with Renault and McLaren. Afterwards in 2006, Michael Schumacher lost to Fernando Alonso by the time
when he had already made announcement about his forthcoming retirement.
Since 2005, Ferrari Formula 1 team has been struggling due to many underlying reasons, one of which is the changes in the team’s management and especially the departure of Todt in 2007.
More recently in 2011, Fernando Alonso had shown some remarkable driving even struggling with the new Pirelli tyres and won at Silverstone.
The future of Ferrari Formula 1 Team indeed looks bright but there is a strong need for the team to improve its technical aspects through the overall team efforts, only then Ferrari can bring its old legacy back.
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