The contrasting fortunes of F1's big-name moves to Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton sent shockwaves through Formula 1 when it was announced last week that he will switch to Ferrari in 2025. After seven world championship triumphs with Mercedes power, Hamilton's move to Maranello is a bold one with no shortage of risk attached.

While several well-established drivers made a success of their time in red, that hasn't always been the case, and often down to factors beyond the driver's immediate control. Here we consider the fortunes of eight drivers who took the plunge and whether their Ferrari careers were a hit or miss.

Juan Manuel Fangio

Carrying the number one from his time at Mercedes, Fangio claimed a fourth world title in 1956 with Ferrari in a brief union

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Ferrari wins: 3
Ferrari titles: 1
Verdict: Hit

Before Mercedes disrupted the pecking order in its short-lived foray into Formula 1 in the mid-1950s, Ferrari had been the class of the field. Once the Stuttgart firm had absconded after winning the drivers’ titles in 1954 and 1955 with Fangio, he considered retiring from racing, but circumstances at home in Argentina kept him behind the wheel. President Juan Peron had been ousted and exiled, and asset-freezes for some of Argentina’s most renowned figures had been implemented, Fangio included. So he kept racing, and linked up with Ferrari to drive its Lancia-designed D50.

Fangio faced stern competition in team-mate Peter Collins and Maserati pair Stirling Moss and Jean Behra, but victory in Buenos Aires got the ball rolling for 1956, albeit in a shared drive with Luigi Musso after his own car was hamstrung by an ailing fuel pump. Despite some reliability issues, Fangio reeled off two further wins at Silverstone and the Nurburgring to sit eight points clear of Collins in the standings at the Monza finale, needing just one point to sew up the title.

Disaster struck when Fangio’s steering arm broke, but Collins took sportsmanship to new heights by giving up his car to help Fangio secure a fourth world title. Together, they shared the points for second place, while Moss won to claim the championship runner-up position.

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Although the Ferrari-Fangio relationship had borne fruit in its first year, it was never an easy relationship, and Fangio returned to Maserati in 1957 to secure his fifth and final title.  

John Surtees

Surtees won back-to-back German GPs at the Nurburgring with Ferrari, his 1964 triumph pivotal in contributing to his title success that year

Photo by: David Phipps

Ferrari wins: 4
Ferrari titles: 1
Verdict: Hit

This winner of seven world motorcycle grand prix titles across 350cc and 500cc categories between 1956 and 1960 dovetailed his final year on two wheels with a handful of outings for Lotus in F1. He raced for Reg Parnell’s squad in 1961 and 1962, his fourth place in the latter championship driving a Lola bringing him to Ferrari’s attention.

Surtees was hired by Enzo Ferrari to lead the team in 1963, which yielded a win at the Nurburgring, but his title success was achieved the following year amid a star-studded scrap for supremacy. Reigning champion and Lotus star Jim Clark led the way at the midpoint of the season, but unreliability nixed the Scotsman’s hopes.

Surtees came on strong in the second half of the campaign, winning the German and Italian GPs, and went into the Mexico City finale as part of a three-way fight with Clark and BRM’s Graham Hill. It appeared that leader Clark was on course to take the crown, only to retire in the final miles. Lorenzo Bandini, who had previously been involved in a controversial clash with Hill, then moved aside for team-mate Surtees on the final lap. When dropped scores were applied, the second place was enough for Surtees to defeat Hill by a single point.

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He was unable to repeat his title in 1965, a campaign of unreliability not helped by Surtees missing the final two races after a heavy Can-Am sportscar crash at Mosport. He departed Ferrari after two GPs in 1966 following disagreements with team manager Eugenio Dragoni.

Nigel Mansell

Mansell claimed some of his greatest triumphs with Ferrari, as well as one of the most surprising on debut at the 1989 Brazil GP

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Ferrari wins: 3
Ferrari titles: 0
Verdict: Miss

Mansell had been a firm title contender with Williams in both 1986 and 1987, but narrowly missed out on both. When Honda departed Williams after 1987, the naturally aspirated Judd engine could not keep Williams at the sharp end of the field. In one of his last acts before his death, Enzo Ferrari turned Mansell’s head and signed the Englishman for 1989.

At Maranello, Mansell became known as Il Leone, and united at the team with countryman John Barnard as they set about bringing a revival to an inconsistent Ferrari squad. Despite the expectations that 1989 would be a transitional year, Mansell nonetheless won on his Ferrari debut in Brazil. This could not provide the impetus for a title challenge as reliability was lacking (and two clumsy disqualifications hurt chances to score more), but a mid-season purple patch and a further win in Hungary offered hope for 1990.

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Although Mansell had enjoyed the edge over Gerhard Berger in 1989, he had to face up to Alain Prost in his second year at the team – and was outclassed by the then-three-time champion. Unreliability also reared its head, the year offering just a single win, at Estoril.

His 1990 was almost the inverse of 1989; the great form Mansell enjoyed at the mid-season European races in his first Ferrari year had deserted him in the second. The Briton planned to retire after 1990, but Frank Williams tempted him back to his team for 1991.

Alain Prost

Prost came close to the title in 1990, but his chances were thwarted by a poor car in 1991

Photo by: Ercole Colombo

Ferrari wins: 5
Ferrari titles: 0
Verdict: Miss

After finding his position at McLaren untenable amid the ensuing tug of war against Ayrton Senna, Prost shacked up with Ferrari for 1990 as Gerhard Berger went the other way. But this was more than a hasty retreat from an uncomfortable situation, because Ferrari’s rather pretty 641 was the best car it had produced in years. This ensured that the Frenchman could once again fight for the title, but without the intra-team politicking that had dogged his final term at McLaren.

Prost picked up his first win in red at the Brazilian GP, and took four more as he exerted his dominance at the team over Nigel Mansell. But the Prost-Senna machinations once again came to a head at Suzuka; Senna was nine points clear of Prost at the top of the standings, and retaining that gap would effectively cement the title in the Brazilian’s favour. And, per the late Murray Walker, it happened immediately; Senna left his car down the inside of Turn 1 after a slower getaway from pole, and the two collided.

Prost enjoyed no more success at Ferrari, with 1991 proving to be a turgid year. The 642 – a development of the 641 – was becoming outdated, and the subsequent 643 was flawed. Prost had greatly disliked the 642’s handling and asked for improvements to the follow-up; that it was barely improved on the 643 produced discord between Prost and the Ferrari management. Prost’s public criticism of the team led to him being fired before the 1991 season finale.

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Michael Schumacher

Schumacher became an unstoppable force at Ferrari, but his run of five titles came after four years of hurt

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Ferrari wins: 72
Ferrari titles: 5
Verdict: Hit

When F1 needed a new hero in the mid-1990s, Schumacher answered the call. After two titles with Benetton, he joined a Ferrari team in the middle of a rebuilding phase; Jean Todt was set to begin his third full season at the helm in Maranello, backed to the hilt by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.

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It was crucial that Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn, two of the architects of Benetton’s success, soon followed Schumacher across the aisle. The German demonstrated his excellence with three wins in 1996 despite a cumbersome car, his rainy Spain victory the most impressive. But his time at Ferrari also showed Schumacher at his worst, and a title challenge in 1997 was undone by his rash attack on Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez, which ensured he was thrown out of the standings.

McLaren and Mika Hakkinen were too strong in 1998, and Schumacher’s attempt at the 1999 crown was derailed by a broken leg sustained in a crash at Silverstone. The wait for a title was finally over in 2000, when Schumacher dispatched Hakkinen in Japan to sew up the championship.

This began Schumacher’s reign of dominance from 2000 to 2004; five successive titles were a perfect showcase of his excellence, but the spectacle began to suffer. Banning tyre changes in the 2005 regulations ended Schumacher’s streak; although he battled Fernando Alonso in the 2006 championship, his Ferrari career ended that year after Kimi Raikkonen was signed to replace him.

Kimi Raikkonen

Victory on debut for Raikkonen at the 2007 Australian Grand Prix preceded a successful title bid, but his second stint yielded only one win in five years

Photo by: Lorenzo Bellanca / Motorsport Images

Ferrari wins: 10
Ferrari titles: 1
Verdict: Hit/Miss

After becoming frustrated at McLaren, Raikkonen defected to Ferrari in place of Michael Schumacher. A win at the first time of asking emerged in Australia, followed by two podiums, but the Finn’s momentum seemed to desert him when the calendar moved into Europe. Instead, the warring McLarens had the upper hand; Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso went head to head at the front, while Raikkonen found himself outpaced by team-mate Felipe Massa.

Magny-Cours was the turning point; more comfort with the F2007 car and a stronger pit strategy gave Raikkonen the win over Massa, and this was followed by a further success at Silverstone. Raikkonen clawed back the gap to the McLaren duo. Alonso’s crash at Fuji and Hamilton’s pitlane slip in China brought Raikkonen back into play for the Brazil finale, which he won to beat the McLaren drivers by a single point. His title defence in 2008 took a back seat when Massa assumed the mantle of lead driver, while 2009 yielded just one win as Ferrari misjudged the new aero regulations.

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Raikkonen was paid off by Ferrari, which wished to bring Alonso in, but the Finn returned after a two-year hiatus from F1 and two seasons with Lotus. His 2014 campaign was poor and he never got on with the F14T, but he became a dependable wingman to Sebastian Vettel in their four years as team-mates. Raikkonen managed just one win in his second Ferrari spell, before moving to Alfa Romeo while Charles Leclerc went the other way. 

Fernando Alonso

Alonso galvanised Ferrari and scored swashbuckling wins but just fell short of the title on two occasions

Photo by: Patrik Lundin / Motorsport Images

Ferrari wins: 11
Ferrari titles: 0
Verdict: Miss

The Spaniard was a two-time champion at Renault, but his switch to McLaren for 2007 ended in hugely controversial circumstances amid infighting against rookie team-mate Hamilton and the spy scandal. He retreated to Renault again, before Ferrari came knocking for the 2010 season.

Their relationship began auspiciously with victory in Bahrain, albeit assisted by Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull gearbox glitch, and he carried that form through to sit atop a four-way championship battle in the run-up to the final race of the season at Yas Marina. Ferrari set about trying to cover off Mark Webber, who went into the race as highest-placed Red Bull driver, but this ensured Alonso got stuck behind Vitaly Petrov. This was the first of two titles lost on the final day of the season at Ferrari.

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The 2011 season was altogether less successful, and Alonso managed just one win, but 2012’s early-season unpredictability set up a mighty championship showdown between Alonso and Vettel in Brazil. Again, the Asturian missed out despite Vettel becoming embroiled in a first-lap tangle that put him at the back, before recovering to sixth to win the title by three points.

Two wins in 2013 could not put Alonso in the title fight again, and the final year with Ferrari in 2014 was hamstrung by the marque’s less-than-stellar approach to the V6 turbo-hybrid regulations. So he made the switch to McLaren as the Woking squad had joined forces with Honda once more, which proved vastly unsuccessful.

Sebastian Vettel

The German Grand Prix crash that struck Vettel's 2018 title chances a hammer blow was a turning point in his time with Ferrari

Photo by: Hasan Bratic / Motorsport Images

Ferrari wins: 14
Ferrari titles: 0
Verdict: Miss

Once Vettel’s domination of the early 2010s had come to an end with the rise of Mercedes and his own struggles with Red Bull’s flawed first car of the turbo-hybrid era, he followed in the footsteps of his hero Michael Schumacher with a move to Ferrari.

Ferrari had not enjoyed a particularly bright start to the switch to hybridised V6 powertrains either, but improved for 2015. Vettel finished third in his first race for the team and followed that up with a win in Malaysia, but the Maranello squad could not break Mercedes’ grip beyond Vettel’s three wins that season. Ferrari then endured a winless 2016 as Red Bull found form, but was a much stronger force the following season.

Amid a consistently strong opening to 2017, Vettel led the championship after the opening half of the year, but the post-summer improvements made at Mercedes swung the championship in Lewis Hamilton’s favour. The Briton chalked up three wins on the bounce in Belgium, Italy and Singapore, and slowly began to extend a gap that Vettel could not close.

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Although the German held the championship lead in 2018 after the first 10 races, his infamous unforced shunt at Hockenheim’s Sachskurve gave Hamilton the upper hand once more. The arrival of Charles Leclerc at Ferrari overshadowed Vettel in 2019, and the neutering of the team’s powertrain ahead of 2020 led to a dismal final year. With Carlos Sainz signed for 2021, Vettel found refuge at Aston Martin for two years before retiring. 

Will Hamilton enjoy more success than Vettel wearing the Ferrari red?

Photo by: Mirko Stange