Scuderia Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari
Full Name	Scuderia Ferrari Vodafone
Base	Maranello, Italy
Founder(s)	Enzo Ferrari
Team Principal(s)	Giovanni Roda
Technical Director	Aldo Costa
	Current Lineup
Template:USA Dave Cassidy	Formula 1
Template:AUS Daniel Melrose	Formula 1
Charles Leclerc	Formula 2 (at Trueba)
Antonio Fuoco	Formula 2 (at Trueba)
	Noted Former Drivers
Template:AUT Niki Lauda	F1 1975
Jody Scheckter	F1 1976
Michael Schumacher	F1 1999, 2000
Robert Kubica	F1 2011
Template:GBR James James Davies	F1 2013

Scuderia Ferrari is the racing division of Ferrari, competing in Formula One. Based in Maranello, Ferrari is the longest-running constructor in Formula One history, having competed in every season since the category's inception in 1950.

Ferrari has won the Formula One world championship six times as a constructor and once as an engine supplier to Sauber.

History

Early years

Scuderia Ferrari was founded in 1929 by Enzo Ferrari, initially as a vehicle to enter amateurs into various championships, before coming Alfa Romeo's de-facto factory team in 1933 - following an economic crisis for the Italian manufacturer. After changing ownership several times throughout the thirties, the company had a brief run manufacturing machine tools for the Italian war effort - whilst simultaneously designing a race car of their own, the A.V.C. Tipo 815. The team moved to their famous Maranello home in 1943, which was subsequently bombed in 1944.

Following the end of WWII, Ferrari revealed their first car of their own - the Tipo 125 S - which was successful in non-championship Grands Prix.

1950s

Ferrari were among the first manufacturers to commit to the new Formula One world championship in 1950, boasting an impressive lineup of drivers including Toulo de Graffenried, Dorino Serafini and Peter Whitehead. Serafini took the Scuderia's first world championship win in the Belgian Grand Prix and finished the season in equal first on points with Alfa Romeo's Giuseppe Farina, but was relegated to second once the dropped scores came into play.

1951 saw Ferrari take more wins than any other manufacturer, with de Graffenried taking a pair on his way to second place in the championship as well as Serafini and Reg Parnell each taking a win apiece. These victories meant that Ferrari were the inaugural World Constructors Champions, being well ahead of Alfa Romeo and Gordini. Ferrari continued their good form into 1952, taking another four wins - this time with Serafini taking two wins to Parnell and de Graffenried's one each. 1952 also saw the first win for a Ferrari in private hands, with Troy Ruttman taking victory in the Dutch Grand Prix for dealer team Ferrari America. These five wins were enough for the Scuderia to retain the Constructor's championship.

De Graffenried left the Scuderia ahead of the 1953 season, opting to join the satellite Ferrari America operation instead. With a vacancy in the lineup for an experienced hand, Ferrari signed former Alfa Romeo driver Juan Manuel Fangio to the stable. Parnell took the opening race of the season in Monaco and Fangio took a strong win in the British Grand Prix but these would be the only bright spots in a season where Aston Martin-Jaguar and Gordini were generally the class of the field. Towards the end of the season, Ferrari gave a chance to young Australian talent Jack Brabham - whom would become a multiple time World Champion in the coming years.

Brabham repaid Ferrari's faith in him at the opening race of the 1954 season, in what would actually be the team's only win that year - with star signing Fangio not returning to the Scuderia for a second season.

A fairly dissapointing 1954 meant that 1955 became somewhat of a fact-finding season, with no less than nine drivers making appearances for Ferrari that year after star driver Brabham made the jump to Turin and Alfa Romeo - winning his first World Championship in the process. Needless to say, the lack of consistency meant that Ferrari were winless for the first time since the start of the World Championship - although the team now had dibs on some impressive new talent, such as Spaniard Paco Godia and Brazilian Hermano da Silva Ramos.

Fangio returned back to Maranello in 1956, leading another eclectic class of drivers including Godia and Ramos. Fangio started the season well with a third place in Monaco, although this ended up being one of Ferrari's few strong results of the year. However, the 1956 season would be marred further for the Scuderia at the Scottish Grand Prix, where Paco Godia was killed after he lost control and span into the trackside trees, getting thrown from the car - the same race as British driver Tony Brooks was killed in a similar incident. Godia was honoured by the team at the following year's Spanish Grand Prix - with the team entering an identical Ferrari R560 into the race under Godia's name. The car remained in the garage throughout the weekend draped under a Spanish flag, before being symbolically withdrawn.

1957 provided a glimmer of hope for the Italian team, with emerging talent Umberto Maglioli finishing the season in fourth place - the team's best result in the WDC for several years - by virtue of strong and consistent drives into the points scoring positions. Despite this, Ferrari still languished back in third place in the Constructor's championship, with the emergence of the British Commonwealth Motorsport Association and O.S.C.A. being stumbling blocks.

Ferrari was hit with another tragedy early on in the 1958 season after test driver Alfonso de Portago was killed whilst testing the new car at the Modena Autodrome. Despite this, Ferrari managed to take their first major win in over three years - albeit a non-championship race - with new signing Peter Collins taking the flag in the Glover Trophy at Goodwood. Two races into the season, Ferrari also broke their World Championship win drought - with Collins winning on the streets of Monte-Carlo.

1960s

To be continued...

1970s

Having won the driver's title with Niki Lauda in 1975, Ferrari aimed to continue their good form into 1976 with a strong lineup of Lauda and South African ace Jody Scheckter. In the early stages of the season, the 312T was the car to beat - with both Lauda and Scheckter taking a pair of wins each from the first five races of the season - the only real resistance coming from the McLaren M23 of Carlos Reutemann.

However, Ferrari would once again be struck by tragedy at the Soviet Grand Prix - with Lauda killed in an airborne incident resulting from contact with the rear of Vittorio Brambilla's March. The death of Lauda saw Ferrari withdraw from the following French Grand Prix - returning at the British Grand Prix with reserve driver Patrick Depailler replacing the fallen Austrian. Scheckter managed to stabilise the team in the second half of 1976, taking a further two wins as well as several podiums in the wake of Lauda's death, eventually beating his Argentine rival to the title at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix.

Scheckter and Depailler remained with Ferrari for 1977, although Depailler's seat would be under scrutiny from the word go. Midway through the season, it was announced that Depailler would be benched for two Grands Prix; Italy and Canada, whilst the Scuderia assessed two young drivers for the role. Italian Formula Three star Elio de Angelis and Formula Atlantic racer Gilles Villeneuve both tried out for the team, with the latter winning his home Grand Prix. The win for Villeneuve would be enough for Ferrari, and it was announced that Villeneuve would partner 1977 runner-up Scheckter in the following season.

1980s

Ferrari's 1987 saw the combination of established Italian ace Michele Alboreto and highly-rated Frenchman Alain Prost representing the team. As had been the case in recent years, Ferrari were well back on pace compared to the likes of McLaren, Williams and Lotus and as such in the early stages of the year the team were only able to pick up decent points when other teams faltered. However, a mid-season upgrade saw the Ferrari jump forward in speed and saw the team take three wins in the summer - with Alboreto winning in Germany and Prost taking the flag in Hungary and Italy. Alboreto suffered an injury during the Italian Grand Prix which forced him to miss the next race in Portugal, being replaced by Andrea de Cesaris. Alboreto was back in the seat for the final three races, but his speed had suffered in the accident - meaning the Scuderia was on the lookout for another driver.

Brazilian upstart Ayrton Senna was the man that Ferrari saw fit to replace Alboreto in 1988, having taken an unprecedented twelve pole positions in the season before - seemingly enough to impress the now ailing Enzo Ferrari in his final years. Ferrari's investment in two of Motorsport's hottest properties almost instantly paid off, with Senna taking yet another pole position in the season opener in Brazil, which was converted to a win by Prost.