F1’s longest-running team reached a milestone at the Belgian Grand Prix. Ferrari started their 900th race, but did not come away with any silverware to add to their haul of 223 victories to date.
Ferrari’s milestone races
100: 1963 German Grand Prix
Ferrari’s hundredth race was an especially significant one as it saw John Surtees claim his first victory for the team, ending a two-year drought of championship success. Surtees went on to win the championship with the team the following year.
200: 1973 Brazilian Grand Prix
Interlagos
In the early seventies Ferrari were enjoying greater success in sports car racing than in Formula One, where all 15 races were won by their Cosworth-powered rivals. On more than one occasion that year Enzo Ferrari decided not to send the team’s out-classed cars to the latest round (see below). However with the arrival of Niki Lauda the following season and the return to designer Mauro Forghieri, better days lay ahead.
300: 1979 Dutch Grand Prix
Zandvoort
One hundred races later, Ferrari had racked up another three constructors’ championship titles, Lauda had taken a pair of drivers’ titles, and the 1979 crowns were also won by Ferrari and its latest champion, Jody Scheckter.
However at the team’s 300th race Scheckter’s team mate Gilles Villeneuve was the centre of attention, famously dragging his three-wheeled car back to the pits after a puncture.
400: 1986 United States Grand Prix
Detroit
Although Ferrari was quick to respond to the challenge posed by the turbo era – and took another pair of constructors’ titles – the team’s fortunes ebbed rapidly after Michele Alboreto finished runner-up in the 1985 championship. Their 1986 campaign was a win-less affair: Alboreto came fourth in their 400th race at Detroit.
500: 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix
Hungaroring
The 1992 season was one of Ferrari’s worst. Jean Alesi dropped out of the team’s 500th race when his driveshaft failed 14 laps in. Team mate Ivan Capelli took his last points finish in their car, and was cut from the squad before the season’s end. But the real root of the team’s problems was neither Capelli nor the poor F92A chassis, but the management vacuum and political infighting left in the wake of Enzo Ferrari’s death four years earlier.
600: 1998 Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps
Six years later, Ferrari had everything in place to conquer Formula One once more. New team chief Jean Todt had assembled his dream team featuring the talents of Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and, at the wheel, Michael Schumacher.
Even so, things hadn’t come right quite yet, partly due to races like their 600th start at Spa. In a rain-lashed race Schumacher was romping to victory when he clattered into David Coulthard’s McLaren. Ferrari would have to wait one more year for its first championship since 1983.
700: 2004 Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps
Ironically, Ferrari concluded their next 100-race landmark without a victory despite having won 61 of the intervening races. The result was a string of six consecutive constructors’ championship titles and, for Schumacher, five drivers’ titles in a row.
The last of which Schumacher clinched in the team’s 700th grand prix. Kimi Raikkonen nabbed the win though, and three years later he succeeded Schumacher in the team’s line-up.
800: 2010 Turkish Grand Prix
Istanbul Park
There wasn’t much for Ferrari to celebrate in their 800th race. Fernando Alonso forced his way past Vitaly Petrov late in the race to salvage eighth place. However when he found himself in the same position at the season finale in Abu Dhabi Alonso was unable to find a way through, and saw his best chance of a Ferrari championship slip away.
900: 2015 Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps
First Red Bull, then Mercedes were the dominating force during Ferrari’s last 100 races. Though Vettel has poached two wins for the Scuderia this year, in their 900th race a tyre blow-out on the penultimate lap cost him a podium finish.
Why did Ferrari miss 27 races?
Ferrari have started 900 of the 927 F1 races so far. So what explains their occasional absences?
There were no Ferraris on the grid for the first world championship race at Silverstone in 1950 where Alfa Romeo were expected to dominate – and did. However at the same track 12 months later Jose Froilan Gonzalez gave Ferrari the first of their 223 wins to date.
Not until the 1980s were teams required to compete in every round of the world championship, and until then it was not unusual for Ferrari to keep its cars away if they were not expected to be competitive: a decision which was often blamed on ‘industrial action’ or something similar.
In 1961 Ferrari’s Phil Hill won the drivers’ championship in the penultimate round at Monza. But what should have been a joyous occasion was overshadowed by the death of his team mate Wolfgang von Trips and 15 spectators in an accident early in the race. Ferrari stayed away from the final round of the championship at Watkins Glen.
The team was struck by tragedy again in 1982, when Gilles Villeneuve was killed during qualifying at Zolder, prompting Ferrari to withdraw the sole remaining car of Didier Pironi.
Ferrari’s most successful drivers
Michael Schumacher’s towering achievement for Ferrari earned him a special place in the hearts of the Scuderia. He won 72 races for them – more than a third of their victories at the time of his last win at Shanghai in 2006.
He is one of 14 world champions and 24 other drivers to win for Ferrari:
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NB. Fangio and Musso shared victory in the 1956 Argentinian Grand Prix.
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MattDS
28th August 2015, 12:43
That pie chart does a fantastic job at making people realize just what Schumacher and Ferrari accomplished during his period there. Absolutely astonishing.
Also, I never realized Massa and Alonso had won an equal number of races for the Scuderia.
Vettel has some work to do in order to work himself to the right hand side of the chart :)
sare
28th August 2015, 12:57
Or, you can say that he just needs to win 9 more races to be on the right side.
MattDS
28th August 2015, 13:22
Well, Alonso was there for five seasons and had to work very hard to get those 11 wins. It won’t necessarily be any easier for Vettel.
sare
28th August 2015, 13:34
That’s possible. Or it might be quite the opposite. What I’m saying is “who knows”? Most probably, every driver on that list would have been on the “right side” with Schumacher’s car for example. Well, except for Barrichello apparently, or without a teammate like Schumacher.
paul
28th August 2015, 12:56
Well, since the 100th race, it’s been a bit of a disaster, every 100th race.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th August 2015, 13:53
And looking at those nine periods of 100 races the most recent one has been the worst in terms of pole positions (four, versus seven in the 1986-1992 period) and equal worst in terms of wins (12, again compared to the run between their 400th and 500th races).
The best, unsurprisingly, was the 100 races starting after the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix: 61 wins, 53 pole positions.
icemangrins (@icemangrins)
28th August 2015, 13:43
I’m sure Seb will win more races for Scuderia in the years to come. Perhaps, he could be one driver left in the Scuderia when they achieve 1000 GP starts
richochet
28th August 2015, 13:57
That’d be nice I guess (:
Derek Edwards
28th August 2015, 14:05
Great article, but one small error – the last time an F1 grid assembled without a Ferrari on it was at the Swiss GP (at Dijon) in 1982. Patrick Tambay was the sole Ferrari entry but withdrew pre-race.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th August 2015, 14:07
Good point – I’ve changed that line accordingly.
Eoin (@eoin16)
28th August 2015, 18:35
Wow! Great stat mate.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
28th August 2015, 14:13
Noticed something I did not expect. I always though that the longer F1 existed the bigger its calender got.
An entire season more? From an average of 16.6 to 14.2 races per season…?
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
28th August 2015, 14:31
The 200th race (in 1973) took place in the second GP that year, while the 300th race (1979( took place in the 12nd out of 15. So it took nearly 7 seasons for those 100 GPs.
Meanwhile, the 400th GP (1986) took place in the 7th GP of 16. So it took more or less the same time, nearly 7 seasons.
The number of races per season barely changed between 1973 (15) and 1986 (16). There were some fluctuations in between, but the average was probably pretty stable during those years.
Jethro (@jethro)
28th August 2015, 14:39
Race 200 – 11th February, 1973
(gap = 6 seasons, actual gap = 6 years and 7 months)
Race 300 – 26th August, 1979
(gap = 7 seasons, actual gap = 6 years and 10 months)
Race 400 – 22nd June, 1986
Looks to be a pretty consistent rate of races @xtwl.
Girts (@girts)
28th August 2015, 14:35
Ferrari is a phenomenon. In the recent AUTOSPORT’s fan survey 22.6% said they would stop watching F1 if Ferrari quit. Even though I doubt if the actual number would be that big if Ferrari indeed left the sport, no other team possesses such popularity and attractiveness. That in turn gives them more income and more power so I am sure that they will come back and win championships again.
Ferrari have strong management, the necessary resources and one of the best drivers in F1 history. Soon all the pieces of the puzzle will inevitably fall into the right places and I only hope that it will not be another period of one team domination.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
30th August 2015, 2:08
+1
Dom Dum (@visof)
28th August 2015, 16:50
Great article again.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
28th August 2015, 22:57
Ferrari have won almost exactly a quarter of all the races ever held in F1, or 24%.
Jerry
3rd April 2016, 23:22
I have 3 Ferrari’s I love every one of them they are my pets , my hobbies and my devoted automobile aficionados. They give me great pleasure and I am so glad to have them. They were all bought one owner myself. I have a 19881/2 gts a 2004 360 spider and a 2014 458 spider what a change in tech over 26 years.