5000 days since a Ferrari driver last won a championship

5000 days since a Ferrari driver last won a championship. 5000 days since a Ferrari driver last won a championship.

Brazil 2007. – Raikkonen wins the title against all odds

Four of the twenty-two drivers on the grid for the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos are still on track: in addition to Kimi Raikkonen, there were Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. It was a different Formula 1, with six engine manufacturiers on the grid, namely Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda, Renault, Toyota and BMW. The world championship was a memorable three-way finish – it hadn’t happened since 1986 and won’t happen again – and Kimi Raikkonen, who had just arrived in Maranello after the retirement of Michael Schumacher at the end of the 2006 Formula One season, with the decisive help of Felipe Massa, his Ferrari teammate team, dramatically won the three way battle with McLaren.

5000 days ago there was an extremely different Ferrari. The president was Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (position held until 2014), the team principal was Jean Todt (now head of the FIA), the chief designer was Aldo Costa (who in 2011 passed to Mercedes), with Stefano Domenicali (now president of F1) in the role of sporting director. At the end of 2006 Ross Brawn (now general manager of F1) had left the team, at the end of 2007 Jean Todt took a step back. Mattia Binotto was already in the team, with the role of chief engineer. The success came on the long wave of the Michael Schumacher era, which had a final moment with the victory of the constructors title in 2008, as the Drivers’ title vanished for Felipe Massa vanishing after crossing the finish line.

Then a long chase. The presidents changed, from Montezemolo to Sergio Marchionne (2014) to John Elkann (2018). CEOs one after the other, from Jean Todt to Amedeo Felisa (2008) to Sergio Marchionne (2016) to Louis Camilleri (2018), passing through the interim of John Elkann up to Benedetto Vigna (2021). The team principals have changed, from Jean Todt to Stefano Domenicali (2008), from Marco Mattiacci (2014) to Maurizio Arrivabene (2014), up to Mattia Binotto (2019). Many drivers have tried, from Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa to Fernando Alonso (2010), Sebastian Vettel (2015) and Charles Leclerc (2019), now Carlos Sainz (2021).

Since then, there have been only four world champions in F1’s hall of honor: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg. Even fewer world champion teams, if we exclude Ferrari in 2008: only Brawn GP, Red Bull and Mercedes