Ferrari F1 Team
Scuderia Ferrari is the name of the Ferrari automobile company’s Formula One racing team. Literally translated, the team’s name is Italian for “Ferrari Stable”, but it is more commonly referred to as “Team Ferrari.”
Scuderia Ferrari was first founded in 1929, racing till 1939 for Alfa Romeo. Ferrari’s first attempt at competing in Formula One was in 1950, and through the decades has seen much success. This makes Ferrari one of the oldest, as well as the most successful team racing currently in Formula One. For many years the team has been top of the F1 racing world, holding a host of different records for the drivers’ championships, podium finishes, the most constructors’ championships, wins, points and so on.
Recent years have seen much of the team’s victorious streak being linked to Michael Schumacher. He has been the most dominant competitor and consistent champion in all of the history of F1 racing. Michael Schumacher retired from F1 racing at the end of the 2006 season.
Felipe Massa had a great 2006 season with two wins and finishing third over all, and the Ferrari team signed up Kimi Raikkonen for the 2007 season to replace Schumacher. Ferrari launched a new car, naming it the F2007, and with Kimi Räikkönen behind the wheel, the car crossed the finish line first in the inaugural race of the 2007 season. The Ferrari F1 Team went on to win the 2007 Constructor’s Championship, however controversy involving espionage carried out by a Ferrari employee and a McLaren engineer hung as a dark cloud over the team that year until the matter was resolved.
The 2008 season opened with disappointing results for Ferrari, but things started to look up when Kimi Raikonnin took first place at the Malaysian Grand Prix. The team’s use of a traffic light-type system to signal drivers to leave the pit-stop counted against them when it was triggered too soon resulting in Massa driving off with the fuel pipe still attached at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. The 2009 Championships had the worst season start in the team’s history, suffering a further setback when Massa was injured by a part from a competitor’s car which hit him on the helmet and knocked him out while he was traveling at 162 mph. Fortunately, no accident resulted, but his injuries prevented him from competing for the rest of the season, and Ferrari finished in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team for 2010 has Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso as principle drivers, with test and reserve drivers being Giancarlo Fisichella, Luca Badoer and Marc Gené.