However the change was effected, red duly became the Italian national racing colour, and has a colour ever been so appropriately associated with a nation? Fiery, passionate, emotional; Italians in a nutshell. Wouldn’t have been the same if Italy’s racing colour was yellow, would it?
Enzo Ferrari began his career as a racing driver, before going on to successfully manage and run the Alfa Romeo racing team in the 1920s and ‘30s. Surprisingly, the company that would make his a household name around the world only came into existence in 1949, when the first Ferrari car appeared, (Scuderia Ferrari had been formed in 1929 to run and manage the Alfa Romeo racing team.) From the outset, Ferrari was a racing car manufacturer, selling road cars simply to cover the costs of going racing.
In 1950, the Formula One World Championship was inaugurated. That first year was a walkover for the Alfa Romeo team, racing supercharged, 1.5-litre Tipo 158 models. By 1951, however, Ferrari was winning, taking three victories, although losing the championship to Alfa Romeo and Juan Manuel Fangio.
For 1952 and ’53, races were run to the then-current Formula 2 rules, mandating 2-litre unsupercharged or 750cc supercharged engines. This was because there were simply not enough suitable Formula 1 cars able to compete. It was the making of Ferrari, Alberto Ascari winning six of the eight rounds to take the 1952 title, and winning a further five races in 1953, again taking the title.
From that moment forwards, Ferrari was the major force in Formula 1 racing, frequently challenged and beaten but never matched for reputation.
Of course, there were other Italian teams that were proud to wear the red of Italy; Maserati was the most successful after Ferrari, while Lancia also played a small part in the 1950s. Its radical D50 Grand Prix car was ahead of its time but the Lancia racing division was closed, the company hading over the cars to Ferrari to run under his own banner in 19??
When a new formula was posted for 1961-onwards, mandating 1.5-litre engines, the British contenders wasted a lot of time complaining and lobbying for it to be delayed, while Ferrari quietly got on with developing his own 1.5-litre engine, understanding that the rules were here to stay, despite the protests of the British.
That gave Ferrari an edge heading into the season and, even though title winner Phil Hill won no more Grands Prix than team mate Wolfgang Von Trips or arch rival Stirling Moss in his privately entered Lotus – two – he took the title along with Ferrari’s first constructor’s title.
By this time, Ferrari was the only Italian manufacturer competing in Formula One – or the only one with any reasonable chance of winning. The driver’s title in 1964, courtesy of ex-motorcycle champion John Surtees, was the last until 1975, the British teams being too strong, most notably Lotus and Brabham.
Ferrari always seemed to be able to let chaos get the upper hand, not to mention the incessant and ever-present internal politics, with Ferrari himself often being told what he wanted to hear by those leading the team at the Grands Prix, often to the detriment of the drivers, or even proper development of the cars. Surtees tired of the politics so much that he walked out of the team half way through the 1966 season.
Famously, after winning the Formula One titles in 1975, ’77 and ’79, Ferrari would not win another driver’s title until 2000, when Michael Schumacher won the first of his five consecutive driver’s titles, after leading the charge to drag the team kicking and screaming towards competitiveness, ably supported by Jean Toit and Ross Brawn, that had started in 1996.
Another title came Ferrari’s way in 2007, courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen but, despite having drivers of the calibre of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso on the strength, that was the last title to date (2024).
