Ferrari are the most iconic team in Formula 1 history.
The only outfit to have competed in every season since the World Championship began in 1950, the Prancing Horse are also the most successful manufacturer, winning 15 Drivers’ and 16 Constructors’ Championships in that time.
The romantic appeal of the Scuderia has attracted some of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time, each of them keen to stand on the top step of the podium in the famous red racing suit.
Indeed, Sebastian Vettel said it best here while driving for the Scuderia in 2016: “Everybody’s a Ferrari fan. Even if they say they’re not, they are a Ferrari fan.”
With that, here are the five best to have ever raced for the Prancing Horse.
5. Alberto Ascari
It’s only right that a list of Ferrari’s greatest Formula 1 drivers begins with the person who won the Scuderia’s first ever World Championship.
At a time when the cars were at their most dangerous, with drivers wearing barely any protective equipment, Ascari showed exceptional skill and precision to pilot his Ferrari to successive World Championships in 1952 and 1953.
In truth, he dominated those seasons, winning every race he competed in (six) in 1952, and five out of nine Grands Prix in 1953.
Incredibly, with his triumph in 1953, Ascari also remains the last Italian to win a World Championship.
Sadly, he would lose his life driving outside of Formula 1 at Monza in 1955, with the corner he lost control at later renamed the Ascari chicane in his honour.
4. Gilles Villeneuve
Gilles Villeneuve’s six Formula 1 wins all came with Ferrari.
The first of these came at his home Grand Prix, Villeneuve winning in Canada after qualifying second and taking advantage of a late mechanical issue for Jean-Pierre Jarier ahead of him.
His last victory, in Spain in 1981, was arguably his most spectacular. Coming two weeks after he won the Monaco Grand Prix, Villeneuve put in a superb defensive display to hold off four drivers behind him, all of whom finished within a second-and-a-half of the Canadian.
One of the most naturally talented drivers to ever get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, the closest Villeneuve came to winning a Championship was in 1979, during which he finished second, four points behind his teammate, Jody Scheckter.
Sadly, reliability issues in 1980 and 1981 prevented the Canadian from going one better, before a high-speed crash in qualifying at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix prematurely ended his life.
The natural talent Villeneuve possessed while racing for Ferrari means he is deserving of a place on this list.
3. Fernando Alonso
Speaking of natural talent, Fernando Alonso was (and still is) full of it.
The Spaniard joined Ferrari from Renault in 2010, driving for the team until the end of the 2014 season.
With two Drivers’ Championships already under his belt, he was hoping to add a third with the Prancing Horse.
Unfortunately, Alonso was unsuccessful. Yet that takes nothing away from his achievements with the Maranello team.
The car Alonso drove during his time with Ferrari was vastly inferior to the Red Bull that was in the hands of Vettel (and later the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg).
Yet, in 2010 and 2012 especially, Alonso dragged his machine to within touching distance of the Drivers’ Title, missing out at the final race of the season on both occasions by four and three points, respectively.
Still, 11 wins and 44 podiums while driving a car that wasn’t the strongest on the grid is a sign of how good Alonso was at Ferrari, and why he makes this list.
2. Niki Lauda
Niki Lauda won two World Championships with Ferrari, and three in total.
The two with the Scuderia came in 1975 and 1977, either side of his near-fatal crash at the Nurburgring in 1976.
The fact that he nearly came back from that crash to win the 1976 title, finishing just one point behind James Hunt despite missing two races after suffering severe burns and extensive damage to his lungs and blood, says everything about the character, ability, and sheer willpower of the Austrian.
A third World Title came in 1984 with McLaren, making Lauda the only driver in history to have won a Drivers’ Championship with both Ferrari and the British-based team.
Another worthy entrant, then, to this list.
1. Michael Schumacher
Could it be anyone other than Michael Schumacher in the number one spot?
Between 2000 and 2004, the German won five consecutive World Championships with the Prancing Horse, taking his personal total to seven.
These included the incredibly dominant seasons of 2002 and 2004, during which Schumacher finished on the podium in all 17 races (winning 11 of them) in the former, and won 12 of the first 13 races in the latter.
| Driver | Entries | Wins |
| 1. Lewis Hamilton | 366 | 105 |
| 2. Michael Schumacher | 308 | 91 |
| 3. Max Verstappen | 219 | 65 |
| 4. Sebastian Vettel | 300 | 53 |
| 5. Alain Prost | 202 | 51 |
Schumacher turned Ferrari into the dominant force in the sport in the first half of the 2000s, breaking record after record along the way.
For that reason, he is the clear number one choice in this list.
Honourable mentions
Such is the legacy and history of Ferrari, several drivers should feel hard done by to miss out on this list.
Kimi Raikkonen is one. The Finnish driver remains the last person to win a Drivers’ Championship with the Scuderia, triumphing over the McLarens of Hamilton and Alonso by just one point in 2007.
Sebastian Vettel is another. Following his four World Championship triumphs with Red Bull, the 37-year-old moved to Ferrari in the hope of emulating his hero, Schumacher.
A combination of Mercedes’ dominance and Vettel’s mistakes saw him fail to achieve this, however, and it’s why he doesn’t make the top five.
John Surtees and Jody Scheckter did win Championships with the Scuderia in 1964 and 1979, respectively. Both deserve a mention here as a result.
Lastly, the calibre of the team’s current pairing of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc could see one or both of them make this list at some point, particularly the latter. Although with Ferrari’s struggles at present, that looks unlikely, at least for the foreseeable future.