FORMULA ONE
JUNE 17, 2021
the immortal scuderia ferrari team
In Formula One sport there is one most successful and oldest competing team, the Scuderia Ferrari team.
The team was founded in 1929 in Modeno and currently is based in Maranello, Italy. They started making their own cars in 1947 and took part in the inaugural World Championship in 1950.
In 1933, Enzo Ferrari – a former racer and manager of Alfa Romeo’s racing team from 1930-1937, started to develop racing cars under the Scuderia Ferrari banner when Alfa Romeo squad pulled their factory team out of competition. Then in 1939, Scuderia Ferrari split from Alfa Romeo and started to produce his own cars prior to the start of the World War II.
Although Ferrari built his first car in 1940, this unit wasn’t known as a Ferrari, as Enzo had agreed not to race under his own name for a further five years. So the first true Ferrari car didn’t appear until 1946.
In 1947, Ferrari produced the Tipo 125 with a 1.5 Litre engine. It was the first racing car under the Ferrari name and was ran under the Scuderia Ferrari banner.
The Formula 1 World Championship was first held in 1950 and the Prancing Horse took part of this event and became the only team to compete in every season in the history of the sport. Ferrari started the season using the supercharged Ferrari 125 with regular drivers Alberto Ascari and his mentor Luigi Villoresi.
So far Ferrari has won the driver’s title fifteen times in 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007.
They won the Constructors’ Championship (which was formed in 1958) sixteen times, in 1961, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008.
The drivers that have won the Championship while driving for Ferrari are Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen.
The story of the prancing horse as Ferrari emblem is simple and fascinating. The horse was painted on a fighter plane flown by Francesco Baracca, an Italian pilot, the ace of the aces during the First World War. In 1923, Ferrari met Francesco’s parents and his mother suggested Ferrari to put the prancing horse emblem as a good luck charm.
Enzo Ferrari was born on February 18, 1898 in Modena, Italy and died on August 14, 1988 in Modena. After his death, Scuderia Ferrari struggled to compete. Internal politics and mediocre performances on the track causing the team to spent their time in darkness during the early 90’s.
But it was by the end of 1990’s when The Prancing Horse started to gain their superiority again. The coming of Jean Todt as Team Principal and Ross Brawn as the Technical Director made the team alive and kicking one more time.
And finally the process was completed by Michael Schumacher as their main driver and the final piece of the puzzle. With this composition, Scuderia Ferrari completely dominated the F1 Championship from year 2000 – 2004 in Constructor and Driver titles consecutively.
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