Top 10 Ferrari drivers

The Scuderia's finest

Enzo Ferrari’s relationship with his drivers was best described as complicated.

Even into the ’60s, he would often sign more racers than there were available cars, then play them off against each other.

He could also show an unsettlingly cold side. Story has it that, after being informed of Eugenio Castellotti’s death while testing, Enzo expressed his sorrow before adding: “E la macchina?”

Even so, there was no doubting the team’s spellbinding appeal, even in the days before Fiat money arrived, when a driver was expected to join Ferrari for the honour of it rather than the retainer.

In later years, Gilles Villeneuve knew that Williams or McLaren would give him a more competitive car if he could tear himself away from Maranello. “Then I go and see the Old Man,” he admitted, “and I’m lost…”

There are big names missing here: Fangio and Prost were great drivers, but you perhaps don’t think of them as great Ferrari drivers.

Nuvolari, meanwhile, raced for Enzo in the years before Il Commendatore built his own cars, and Schumacher in those after Ferrari had died, but both undeniably added their own chapters to the legend.

1 Michael Schumacher

By 2004, Formula One enthusiasts couldn’t hear the German national anthem without thinking of the Italian one, so accustomed had they become to podium ceremonies for Schumacher and Ferrari.

The statistics are staggering: between 2000 and 2004 alone, he won 48 Grands Prix – his great rival Mika Häkkinen won ‘only’ 20 throughout his entire career – and five consecutive World Championships.

1 Michael Schumacher (continued)

It was a level of domination that was unthinkable when double world champ Schumacher joined Ferrari for 1996.

Not since Jody Scheckter in ’79 had Maranello won a drivers’ title, but Schumacher’s talent and tireless work ethic found the perfect outlet once team boss Jean Todt recruited the likes of Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne.

He might have been sketchy on the team’s history – after winning the ’98 French GP from team-mate Eddie Irvine, he wondered aloud whether Ferrari had ever had a one-two – but still he delivered unparalleled success. 

2 José Froilán González

Discount the Indianapolis 500, and not until the 1951 British GP was Alfa Romeo beaten in a round of the World Championship. That race marked the first of 228 (and counting) wins for Ferrari at the top level – and it came courtesy of José Froilán González.

The burly Argentinian followed compatriot Fangio to Europe in 1950, but it was domestic success in a Ferrari – beating the pre-war Mercedes W154s in Buenos Aires – that really brought him to Enzo’s attention.

He made his debut for the team at the 1951 French GP, then followed his Silverstone victory with podium finishes in Germany, Italy and Spain.

2 José Froilán González (cont.)

After spending two years with Maserati, González returned to Ferrari for 1954, when he again won the British Grand Prix.

He also claimed that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours after an epic drive in terrible conditions, but significantly curtailed his racing after the death of close friend Onofre Marimón at the Nürburgring in 1954. 

3 Chris Amon

It was a decision that summed up Amon’s career: in late 1969, he tested Ferrari’s new flat-12 Grand Prix car but teething troubles reinforced his belief that he needed a Cosworth engine behind him.

He left to join March just as the beautiful 312 came good, after three years at Maranello in which reliability woes had robbed him not only of Grand Prix victories but even a possible World Championship in 1968.

Amon’s effortless talent was held in the highest esteem by his rivals, and while at Ferrari he won the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours and Nürburgring 1000km, as well as the 1969 Tasman series.

3 Chris Amon (cont.)

Mauro Forghieri rated him as highly as Jim Clark, and in return Amon loved the Italian way of life.

He would later recall that testing would often involve having lunch with Enzo, who would dismiss the presence of Lambrusco by explaining that it would help Amon to go faster in the afternoon. 

4 Niki Lauda

After a dismal 1973, Ferrari needed a fresh start – and got it. With Luca di Montezemolo in charge, new recruit Lauda took nine pole positions in 1974 and won twice.

The following year, he claimed the Championship but, although it started brightly, the great Austrian’s time at Maranello grew increasingly tumultuous.

In 1976 came his life-threatening accident at the Nürburgring, his early return amid fears that Enzo had written him off, and his brave withdrawal from the deciding race in Japan.

4 Niki Lauda (cont.)

Things came to a head the following year, when Clay Regazzoni was replaced by Carlos Reutemann. During that season, Lauda was asked if he looked upon Reutemann as a team-mate or a rival. “Neither,” he replied.

After his second World Championship was confirmed – and furious with the team’s politics – he pulled out of the final two races of 1977 before joining Brabham for ’78.

5 Alberto Ascari

At the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix, Sebastien Vettel took his ninth consecutive GP victory to equal one of the sport’s oldest records. Across ’52 and ’53, Alberto Ascari had won the same number for Ferrari en route to landing the title in both years, during which he and Fangio became racing’s greatest stars.

Mike Hawthorn was not alone in reckoning that Ascari was faster than the legendary Argentinian, and certainly the Italian had the happier time at Maranello.

5 Alberto Ascari (cont.)

Son of fellow racer Antonio Ascari, Alberto had driven Enzo’s first car, the AAC Tipo 815, in the 1940 Mille Miglia.

After the war, he joined Ferrari alongside his great friend Luigi Villoresi, and ran Fangio close in 1951 before embarking on his record-breaking run of dominance.

In 1954, he left Maranello to drive for Lancia but died at Monza the following year when the Ferrari that he was testing left the road at Vialone. 

6 Phil Hill

As articulate a man who ever raced, Hill is most often remembered as the 1961 F1 World Champion. The American won two Grands Prix that year aboard the 156 ‘Sharknose’, but he also recorded a huge amount of success in Enzo’s sports cars.

In 1958, Hill teamed up with Olivier Gendebien to win the Le Mans 24 Hours in dreadful conditions; they went on to win the French classic twice more, in 1961 and ’62.

Hill was victorious three times at Sebring, too, as well as the 1961 Nürburgring 1000km.

6 Phil Hill (cont.)

In Formula One terms, however, Ferrari was nowhere in 1962 and Hill left to join ATS – the team that had been set up by former Maranello staff during acrimonious times.

The move was not a success but, in 1967, Hill signed off in style with Chaparral by winning his final race, the BOAC 500. 

7 Tazio Nuvolari

The Flying Mantuan won everything from Le Mans to the Tourist Trophy, but one victory stands out.

In 1935, during his second stint with Enzo’s team, his Scuderia Ferrari Alfa beat Mercedes and Auto Union in their own backyard.

Delayed by a slow pitstop, an inspired Nuvolari overtook Bernd Rosemeyer, Rudolf Caracciola, Luigi Faglioli and Hans Stuck in a single lap, then chased down Manfred von Brauchitsch, whose Mercedes was running on increasingly worn tyres.

On the last lap, the left-rear finally let go and Nuvolari’s P3 swept through for the most unlikely of victories.

7 Tazio Nuvolari (cont.)

Even if that German GP had been his only win for the Scuderia, it would have been enough to earn Nuvolari a place in Ferrari history.

It was simply the most famous of many, though, and it’s little wonder that Enzo considered him to be the best ever. 

8 John Surtees

Not for nothing was Surtees known as ‘Fearless John’: in 1970, he returned to Ferrari to race the 512S, and lapped the old 8.7-mile Spa road circuit at an average of more than 150mph while it was dry only on the racing line.

Remembering it years later, he flashed that huge smile: “That was nothing compared to going around there on a motorcycle.”

8 John Surtees (cont.)

The success of his switch to four wheels will surely never be repeated. For only his fourth season, he joined Ferrari and established himself as the team leader, securing the F1 title in ’64.

He also played a huge role in developing the P-series in which he’d win at Sebring, Nürburgring and Monza, plus the Targa.

As with countless others, he eventually fell foul of Ferrari politics and stormed out ahead of the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours. 

9 Gilles Villeneuve

After making an impressive debut for McLaren at the 1977 British Grand Prix, Villeneuve was stunned when the team decided not to take up its option on him. It turned out to be Formula One’s equivalent of Decca not signing The Beatles and, in any case, by autumn salvation had arrived.

Enzo saw echoes of Nuvolari in the little French-Canadian and decided to take a chance on him. Brave and charismatic, he was the perfect Ferrari driver.

Enzo came to adore his hard-charging style in the car as well as his honest approach out of it. In his first full season, Villeneuve won his home GP; in his second, he almost won the title.

9 Gilles Villeneuve (cont.)

He was saddled with uncompetitive machinery for the next two years, yet still his genius shone through. In 1981, he dragged the powerful but wayward 126CK to unlikely victories in Spain and Monaco.

For 1982, Harvey Postlethwaite designed the much-improved 126C2, but Villeneuve had no time to exploit it.

Believing he’d been robbed of victory by Pironi at the San Marino GP, he was killed during practice for the next race in Belgium.

“No human being can do a miracle,” said Jacques Laffite, “but Gilles made you wonder.” 

10 Jacky Ickx

It was arguably Formula One’s most stylish line-up: Maranello’s gorgeous 312 being driven by two prodigiously talented youngsters, New Zealander Chris Amon and Belgian Jacky Ickx.

Either could have won the World Championship in 1968 given an ounce of luck, but when the debonair Ickx returned to Ferrari for 1970 following a year with Brabham, he found himself in the unique position of not wanting to take the title.

10 Jacky Ickx (cont.)

After Jochen Rindt’s death during practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the Belgian could overhaul his rival by winning the remaining three races – he would admit to being relieved when his Ferrari suffered a broken fuel pipe in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

More wins followed in 1971 and ’72, although that was as close as Ickx got to racing’s ultimate prize, and fittingly his last victory for Ferrari came at the Nürburgring – a circuit at which he’d always excelled. He left for Lotus after a desultory 1973.