Ferrari tops all the major Formula 1 statistics, and by some margin. It has more race wins, more drivers’ titles and more constructors’ crowns than any other team.
The legendary Italian squad’s tally of 15 drivers’ titles puts it three clear of second-best McLaren, while 39 drivers have won world championship grands prix for Ferrari.
PLUS: The spectacular peaks and troughs of Ferrari in F1
That means picking out the top 10 Ferrari F1 drivers is incredibly difficult, with some top drivers and world champions missing the cut. But we’ve given it a go.
For this list, Autosport assessed the amount of success the drivers scored with Ferrari, the impact they had on the team and the circumstances of their time there. We didn’t consider their achievements at other teams.
‘Ferrari starts’ refer to world championship races only.
If you’d also like to see which Ferrari F1 cars we thought were best, take a look here.
10. Alain Prost
Ferrari years: 1990-91
Ferrari starts: 30
Ferrari wins: 5
Ferrari titles: 0
His Ferrari mission ultimately failed and he was fired but Prost’s impact should not be overlooked. Across the four seasons prior to the Frenchman’s arrival, Ferrari had scored just six wins and been a long way from toppling McLaren at the top of F1.
Nigel Mansell had been a plus and was popular with the Tifosi, who christened him, Il Leone, but it was Prost who took the fight to his old team McLaren and arch-rival Ayrton Senna when he joined in 1990. Mansell’s season was hamstrung by appalling reliability, while Prost tended to lead the charge as Ferrari raised its game.
Prost’s first Ferrari win came in round two in Brazil when leader Senna clashed with a backmarker, but his challenge really got going in Mexico. From 13th on the grid, Prost charged through the field to win in what was perhaps his greatest drive.
Race of My Life: Alain Prost on Mexico 1990
More victories followed in France and Britain, though Mansell had proved the quicker at Silverstone before his semi-automatic gearbox played up. That British GP victory put Prost into the points lead and forced McLaren to respond. Generally the Honda V10 gave McLaren a power advantage while Ferrari’s 641 was arguably the better chassis.
Three wins from the next four races put Senna back in control and Prost was not best pleased to lose out at the start in Portugal when Mansell appeared to swerve towards him while suffering wheelspin. The race was then stopped early, eradicating the chance to repass Senna on a day the Ferrari looked the better package and Mansell won.
Mansell played the team game in Spain, where Prost won and Senna retired. Prost still needed to beat Senna in Japan and took the lead at the start, only for Senna to deliberately smash the Ferrari out of the race at the first corner to clinch the title.
Jean Alesi replaced Mansell for 1991, but Ferrari fell away. Despite the 643 showing promise on its debut at the French GP – Prost only losing out to the charging Williams-Renault of Mansell – the team went winless and internal tensions grew.
PLUS: When F1's crazy horse joined the Prancing Horse
Prost was less than complementary about the car, leading to his sacking ahead of the Australian GP finale. He still outscored Alesi to finish fifth in the points, then took a sabbatical before taking his fourth crown with Williams in 1993. Ferrari would have to wait until 2000 for its next drivers’ title…
9. Mike Hawthorn
Ferrari years: 1953-54, 1955, 1957-58
Ferrari starts: 35
Ferrari wins: 3
Ferrari titles: 1 (1958)
Hawthorn might have been fortunate to become the first British world champion, famously winning just one GP to Stirling Moss’s four in 1958, but his impact on Ferrari was considerable.
After impressing in underpowered Cooper-Bristol machinery in 1952, Hawthorn was signed by Ferrari for the following year. Armed with the dominant two-litre 500, Hawthorn took fourth in the standings – behind world champions Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio and Giuseppe Farina – and scored his first points-paying success.
That victory came in the epic French GP at Reims, where he pipped Fangio on the final run to the line at the end of a titanic duel. Jose Froilan Gonzalez, another candidate for this list having scored Ferrari’s first world championship GP victory at Silverstone in 1951, and Ascari also finished within 4.6 seconds of the victor.
PLUS: Ferrari’s first title-winning racer
Ferrari was outclassed in 1954 as Mercedes arrived and Hawthorn suffered a fiery crash in the non-championship Syracuse GP. But he bounced back, took three second places and won the Spanish GP finale to finish third in the standings.
Hawthorn then drove for several different teams, including outings for Ferrari, before rejoining full-time for 1957. Ferrari was beginning to fall behind with its 801, Hawthorn and mate Peter Collins being on the receiving end of a masterful Fangio comeback in the German GP for Maserati, and there were no wins.
Hawthorn was a distant fourth in the points but the 246 Dino was a step up for 1958. After being embarrassed by Moss in an underpowered Cooper, Ferrari fought the increasingly strong Vanwall onslaught for the rest of the campaign.
Moss and Tony Brooks set the pace more often than not and won seven of the 10 world championship GPs but Vanwall reliability hampered them. Hawthorn, who scored his one victory by dominating the French GP, kept on racking up second places and fastest laps, for which there was a point.
When Brooks suffered engine failure and team-mate Phil Hill moved aside in the Moroccan GP decider, Hawthorn took the second place he needed to beat winner Moss to the title by one point. He then retired, only to be killed in a road car accident in January 1959.
PLUS: Mike Hawthorn 50 years on
As well as his three wins, 16 podiums and one world title, Hawthorn also helped push Ferrari forward technically. He was key to getting disc brakes onto his Dino in the fight against Vanwall, which had been using the technology for several seasons.
8. Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari years: 2007-09, 2014-18
Ferrari starts: 151
Ferrari wins: 10
Ferrari titles: 1
It’s a touch ironic that Raikkonen scored his F1 title with Ferrari, given he was arguably more impressive at McLaren. But the Finn won on his Ferrari debut and pipped McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to the 2007 title.
Archive: The ups and downs of Raikkonen's 2007 F1 title triumph
Raikkonen took six victories in that first season with Ferrari but only two the following season as he was overshadowed by team-mate Felipe Massa. Hamilton famously snatched the drivers’ crown at the Interlagos finale but Raikkonen comfortably outscored Heikki Kovalainen so Ferrari took the constructors’ crown.
The F60 for F1’s new regulations in 2009 was not a good car and Massa was again leading Raikkonen in the points when his Hungarian GP qualifying crash put him out for the rest of the season. Raikkonen seemed to step up after that, scoring four straight podiums, including an opportunistic victory at Spa.
Watch: The 10 worst F1 cars to win a GP
Raikkonen was released from his contract early at the end of 2009 and replaced by Alonso. But after time in rallying, NASCAR and an F1 return with Lotus, he rejoined Ferrari alongside Alonso for 2014. However, it was ill-prepared for the turbo-hybrid regulations and Raikkonen was thrashed by Alonso, even though the Spaniard left at the end of the campaign.
It was a similar story alongside Sebastien Vettel, who arrived in 2015, though the pair got on well. Raikkonen’s experience and popularity helped Ferrari, even if his on-track performances weren’t quite a match for those of his McLaren days. He racked up 14 podiums in his first three years with Vettel but rarely troubled the title contenders. Perhaps the best campaign of his second Ferrari stint was his last one in 2018 as Vettel challenged Mercedes’ Hamilton for the drivers’ title.
Raikkonen scored 12 podiums to finish third in the standings, the highlight being his fine victory ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Hamilton at the United States GP. By then, it had already been announced that the Finn would be replaced by Charles Leclerc for 2019.
Top 10: Ranking Raikkonen’s 10 greatest F1 drives
Raikkonen probably should have achieved more at Ferrari, but his 2007 title, sheer longevity and resonance with fans get him onto this list.
7. Juan Manuel Fangio
Ferrari years: 1956
Ferrari starts: 7
Ferrari wins: 3
Ferrari titles: 1 (1956)
The great Argentinian didn’t get on particularly well with Ferrari, only made seven world championship starts for the team and left after one season. But he has to be on the list because he finished on the podium in five of those seven GPs and won his fourth world title.
PLUS: The original F1 maestro who set the bar for Schumacher and Hamilton
Ferrari’s 1955 season had not been a good one. Although it scored a fortuitous win in the Monaco GP, courtesy of Maurice Trintignant, Ferrari was outperformed by Mercedes and Lancia, and Maserati’s 250F was faster than the 625 and 555 models.
But three big changes threw things in Ferrari’s favour. First, Lancia’s financial issues meant Ferrari inherited Vittorio Jano’s brilliant D50s. Second, the dominant Mercedes team withdrew following the 1955 Le Mans disaster. And finally, Fangio joined.
Fangio wasn’t best pleased with Ferrari’s reliability, though car jumping with team-mates allowed him to win the season-opening Argentinian GP and finish second (and fourth!) at Monaco. Transmission failure put Fangio out of the lead of the Belgian GP, which team-mate Collins won. When the Englishman won the following French GP, with Fangio fourth after being delayed by a split fuel line, Collins topped the points table.
Fangio called for changes and two wins followed, a lucky one at Silverstone after a spin and a dominant one at the Nurburgring. That put Fangio into a commanding championship lead heading into the Monza finale, Fangio taking second after Collins had handed his car over when the Argentinian’s machine hit trouble.
PLUS: How Britain's lost Ferrari star epitomised a bygone F1 era
Mission accomplished, Fangio headed back to Maserati, where he would clinch his fifth and final crown in 1957. Ferrari failed to win a race.
6. Gilles Villeneuve
Ferrari years: 1977-82
Ferrari starts: 66
Ferrari wins: 6
Ferrari titles: 0
Few, if any, drivers embody the romance of Ferrari as much as Gilles Villeneuve. The French-Canadian was perhaps the fastest driver of his generation and would have won many more races had his short career not coincided with a period of some of Ferrari’s poorest cars.
After one start with McLaren, Villeneuve joined Ferrari for the final races of 1977 and never drove for another team. He earned something of a reputation as a wild man early on and a clash with Ronnie Peterson at the Japanese GP resulted in the deaths of a marshal and photographer, but he quickly became one of F1’s top performers.
As his career progressed, Villeneuve demonstrated an ability to look after fragile cars and tyres, and withstand pressure, as well as being a hard-but-fair racer. He also helped team-mate Jody Scheckter, who only just missed making this list, to the 1979 title.
During that campaign Villeneuve had some brilliant moments, such as a dominant victory at Long Beach on soft tyres, and some wild ones, including not pitting soon enough when it was clear he had a puncture in the Dutch GP. The image of him three-wheeling back to the Zandvoort pits became famous but in reality he had thrown away a podium in a race Scheckter recovered from a poor start to finish second.
His fight for second with Renault’s Rene Arnoux in the closing stages of the French GP has become part of F1 folklore, Villeneuve demonstrating incredible car control and fighting spirit to beat the home hero despite worn rubber.
Scheckter lost interest in 1980 and Villeneuve absolutely thrashed the South African as he strove to get the uncompetitive 312T5 up the field. There were still incidents, but Villeneuve’s press-on style won fans and was probably what such a recalcitrant car required.
The 1981 126CK’s chassis wasn’t a good one but the power of Ferrari’s first turbocharged F1 engine at least gave Villeneuve something to exploit. He did so brilliantly, most famously to win the Spanish GP ahead of a string of faster cars and at Monaco, following what was one of the greatest qualifying laps of all time, 2.5s faster than team-mate Didier Pironi.
PLUS: The best F1 qualifying lap debate
The 126C2 was much better and Villeneuve would have been one of the championship favourites had he not been killed in a horrific crash during qualifying for the Belgian GP. That came only two weeks after he had fallen out with Pironi when the Frenchman had won the San Marino GP, Villeneuve felt unfairly against team orders.
Villeneuve was set to move to McLaren for 1983 and would therefore have had access to the dominant TAG Porsche-powered cars of the mid-1980s. Title challenges would surely have been on the cards but, as it is, Villeneuve’s legend far exceeds the six wins he took for Ferrari.
5. Fernando Alonso
Ferrari years: 2010-14
Ferrari starts: 96
Ferrari wins: 11
Ferrari titles: 0
Five more points in 2010 and four more in 2012 would have made Alonso a double Ferrari champion. He scored 11 wins across his five seasons with the team, but Ferrari was never quite able to provide the Spaniard with machinery that would have allowed him to end Red Bull’s supremacy with Vettel.
Alonso joined Ferrari in 2010 after both had suffered tricky campaigns the year before. Helped by a late problem for Vettel, Alonso won first time out in Bahrain and he added four more victories as he took the fight to Red Bull and McLaren.
Red Bull was too strong in 2011, though Alonso won the British GP and finished just one point behind Mark Webber in the battle for third in the championship.
Alonso’s performance in 2012 was one of the finest in F1 history as he challenged for the title and took three wins in a car that was only third or fourth fastest across the season. His misjudgement at the start at Suzuka was arguably his only significant mistake and Alonso was perhaps unlucky that Vettel’s Red Bull survived its first-lap clash at Interlagos, allowing the German to finish sixth and take the crown by three points.
PLUS: Ranking Alonso’s greatest F1 drives so far
Red Bull was untouchable in 2013 and Mercedes was stronger. Alonso still excelled, taking two wins and splitting Vettel and Webber to be runner-up for the third time in four years.
Having dominated Massa, Alonso then comfortably outperformed Raikkonen when the Finn returned to the Italian team for 2014. Ferrari did not start the turbo-hybrid era strongly, Alonso suffering his first winless season for the team despite a fine effort in the Hungarian GP.
Not for the first time, Alonso’s demanding nature brought him into conflict with management and he left the team at the end of 2014, but his performances for Ferrari on-track were brilliant. It is perhaps a shame for both parties that Alonso wasn’t at the wheel when Ferrari produced its competitive challengers in 2017-18…
4. John Surtees
Ferrari years: 1963-66
Ferrari starts: 30
Ferrari wins: 4
Ferrari titles: 1 (1964)
Ferrari had suffered a staff exodus and a winless 1962 when Surtees arrived. His experience with Italian powerhouse MV Agusta in motorcycle racing proved useful and Surtees was key to Ferrari’s revival.
As well as spearheading Ferrari’s sportscar attack – something Surtees felt took up too many resources until Le Mans was won – he took his first world championship GP success at the Nurburgring in 1963, defeating runaway champion Jim Clark.
PLUS: John Surtees’ 10 greatest F1 drives
Mauro Forghieri’s 158 was good enough to take on the Lotus 33 and BRM P261 in 1964, Surtees battling Clark and Graham Hill for the championship. Fortunes ebbed and flowed, and victories in the German and Italian GP put Surtees in a three-way title showdown in Mexico.
Clark’s late failure and Hill’s clash with Surtees’ team-mate Lorenzo Bandini helped Surtees to second, enough to clinch the crown by a single point. Ferrari also won the constructors’ contest.
Surtees and Ferrari couldn’t match the Lotus/Clark combination in 1965, but probably should have won the 1966 titles. Few teams were ready for the change from 1500cc to three-litre engines and Surtees was arguably the favourite following a fine win in the Belgian GP.
PLUS: How Surtees became an unappreciated Ferrari great
But the Briton had never got on well with racing director Eugenio Dragoni, who favoured Italian drivers, and walked out after a disagreement at Le Mans. Surtees joined Cooper and outscored all the Ferrari drivers but lost out to the pragmatic Jack Brabham.
3. Alberto Ascari
Ferrari years: 1950-53, 1954 (one-off)
Ferrari starts: 27
Ferrari wins: 13
Ferrari titles: 2 (1952-53)
Ferrari’s first world champion was Fangio’s chief rival in the first half of the 1950s. He was also important in Enzo Ferrari’s early days as a constructor, impressing in the 1940 Mille Miglia with the new Tip 815, not yet christened a Ferrari.
Ascari proved himself at GP level with wins in Maseratis during 1948, the experienced Luigi Villoresi his guide. Both joined Ferrari for 1949 and, with the hitherto dominant Alfa Romeos absent, Ascari became one of the drivers to beat.
Alfa returned for the first year of the world championship in 1950 and dominated, but Ferrari and Ascari was an ever-strengthening combination. Having gained the ascendency over Fangio and the thirsty 1.5-litre supercharged Alfa Romeo 159 with Ferrari’s unblown 375 in the second half of 1951, Ascari probably should have taken the title. But a Ferrari wheel/tyre blunder handed the Spanish GP finale and crown to Fangio.
With Alfa withdrawing and little in the way of meaningful opposition for Ferrari, the drivers’ world championship switched to Formula 2. But Ferrari dominated anyway with its 500, helped by Fangio missing the entire 1952 world championship following a serious crash at Monza.
Ascari, the son of pre-war Alfa racer Antonio, missed the season-opening Swiss GP as he prepared for the Indianapolis 500 (where he retired) but won all the six remaining races, taking the maximum score possible under the dropped-points rules and taking his first title.
Indeed, Ascari then won the first three championship GPs (excluding the Indy 500) of 1953. That meant that, for more than a year, nobody else won a points-paying F2 race. He was finally beaten into a close fourth at the French GP, but still comfortably defeated the recovered Fangio to retain his crown.
Ascari lost much of 1954 waiting for Lancia’s promising D50 to finally be race-ready but still had time for one more starring drive for Ferrari. In the unfancied 625, he took the fight to Fangio’s superior Mercedes W196 and Stirling Moss’s Maserati 250F before the engine failed. The popular Ascari would surely have been the main challenger to Mercedes in 1955, with the D50, but was killed in a needless Ferrari sportscar testing accident in May.
Archive: The rise and fall of Italy’s great champion
2. Niki Lauda
Ferrari years: 1974-77
Ferrari starts: 57
Ferrari wins: 15
Ferrari titles: 2 (1975, 1977)
The first Germanic force to help turn Ferrari into a dominant power, Austrian Lauda joined in 1974. He and the 312B3 were the season’s fastest combination and took nine poles, but too many retirements hampered his challenge and he finished behind team-mate Clay Regazzoni in the standings.
Lauda formed a strong relationship with team manager Luca di Montezemolo and, with Forghieri’s superb 312T, marched to five wins and the 1975 title. Ferrari also took the constructors’ crown, its first championships since 1964.
The following season looked set to be more of the same, Lauda building a big lead with four wins and two seconds in the first six races. Then came his horrific crash in the German GP at the Nurburgring and, while Lauda fought for his life, McLaren’s James Hunt reduced the points deficit.
Much to Ferrari’s surprise – hence three 312T2s appearing at Monza – Lauda made a heroic comeback for the Italian GP, having missed just two rounds. Nevertheless, wins for Hunt in Canada and the US meant Lauda led by just three points going into the decider of a dramatic and controversial season.
Top 10: Ranking Niki Lauda’s greatest F1 drives
The Japanese GP at Fuji was delayed by rain and conditions were still appalling when the race got under way. In a move perhaps as brave as his decision to return, Lauda withdrew after just two laps and had left the circuit by the time Hunt’s third place confirmed the Briton as champion.
PLUS: The heroism, horror and hurt of Lauda at Ferrari
Lauda’s relationship with Ferrari was never the same after the Nurburgring crash but he made his point in 1977. The Ferrari 312T2 was perhaps the fourth-fastest car of the season, but it was more reliable than the chief opposition and Lauda’s experience and guile was enough to clinch the title with two rounds to spare. Mission accomplished, Lauda sat out the final two races before his switch to Brabham for 1978.
The move perhaps cost Lauda a third crown, given what Scheckter would achieve in 1979, but it mattered not to Niki, whose place in Ferrari’s hall of fame had already been assured.
1. Michael Schumacher
Ferrari years: 1996-2006
Ferrari starts: 179
Ferrari wins: 72
Ferrari titles: 5 (2000-04)
Could this spot be taken by anyone else? Michael Schumacher was integral to the Jean Todt/Ross Brawn/Rory Byrne superteam that dominated F1 at the start of the millennium and scored many more wins and titles than any other Ferrari driver. Only Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are remotely in the same ballpark in terms of sustained success.
Top 10: Ranking the greatest Mercedes GP drivers
Schumacher was already a double world champion when he decided to leave Benetton at the end of 1995 and take up the challenge of resurrecting Ferrari, which had not won the drivers’ crown since 1979.
Things were tough at first, the F310 of 1996 being uncompetitive. Schumacher still dragged it to four poles and three wins, including a wet-weather masterclass in Barcelona.
PLUS: F1’s greatest wet-weather drives
The F310B wasn’t much better in 1997 but a combination of inspired performances from Schumacher and Williams blunders meant the title fight went down to the Jerez finale. Schumacher’s attempt to remove championship rival Jacques Villeneuve failed and the Williams driver went on to finish third and take the crown by three points – before Schumacher was excluded from the table.
Ferrari finally jumped Williams as new rules arrived in 1998, only for McLaren to leapfrog both. Ferrari responded and Schumacher was again brilliant but lost out to McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen.
The F399 was good enough to win the title – and did bring Ferrari constructors’ laurels – but a leg-breaking crash at Silverstone removed Schumacher from proceedings. He returned for the final two races in a failed bid to help Eddie Irvine’s title attack against Hakkinen.
Ferrari and McLaren were evenly matched in 2000 and nine wins were enough for Schumacher to finally bring Ferrari its first drivers’ crown for more than two decades.
PLUS: The car the restored Ferrari in F1
It was the start of a never-before-seen run of success. With Rubens Barrichello alongside, Schumacher reeled off five consecutive drivers’ titles, with the 2002 and 2004 campaigns being among the most dominant in F1 history.
PLUS: The F1 car so good it shocked Ferrari
Rule changes threw Ferrari off its stride in 2005 and Schumacher’s only win came in the farcical US GP in which only six cars started. A fine revival the following year brought seven more victories, Ferrari and Schumacher narrowly beaten to the crowns by Renault and Alonso.
Schumacher retired at the end of 2006, replaced by Raikkonen, but his tallies of five drivers’ titles and 72 victories for Ferrari are second only to Hamilton’s record with Mercedes. Schumacher accounts for nearly a third of all Ferrari race victories in the world championship, a remarkable statistic given the long history of the famous team.
