This year Lando Norris became Formula 1 world champion in a title fight that, after his retirement in the closing laps of the Dutch Grand Prix, appeared to be firmly heading towards his team-mate Oscar Piastri. Following the events at Zandvoort, the British driver mounted a relentless comeback, giving no respite to his garage neighbour, until his name was engraved in the record books, while the Australian fell into a crisis that saw him drop from first to third place in the overall standings.
A great deal has been said about Piastri’s negative spiral, but one of the explanations that has gained the most traction is the classic mantra associated with Fernando Alonso, still mindful of 2007 when he was team-mate to Lewis Hamilton: “an English team favours the English driver”. In short, Norris’s success would be dictated solely by his nationality. This idea does not come only from Australia, but also from us Italians, who have never been particularly gentle towards the Woking-based team. But does McLaren really favour British drivers?
McLaren, a very British team
The British team has been present in Formula 1 since 1966 and is the second-oldest franchise on the grid after Ferrari. In almost 60 years of history, no fewer than 14 British drivers have driven its cars. If the scope is extended to those from the British Isles, the total rises to 16, adding Northern Irishman John Watson and Scot David Coulthard.
From the first victory by world champion James Hunt at the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix, to Lando Norris’s win at this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, drivers racing under His Majesty’s flag have accumulated 65 victories out of McLaren’s total of 203, nearly one third of the British team’s triumphs. Lewis Hamilton tops this particular ranking with an impressive 21 wins.
With Norris’s world title, the Woking outfit can now boast three home-grown drivers who have become Formula 1 world champions: the aforementioned James Hunt, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris.
If for the British driving for McLaren is reality, for Italians driving for Ferrari in F1 is a dream
Ferrari is the oldest and most glorious team in Formula 1 and, for us Italians, it is equivalent to a true national team. Yet it is also a team in which, for one reason or another, Italians have struggled to find space. For the Maranello-based squad, from 1950 to the present day, only 24 Italian drivers have had the honour of racing. The first were Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari at the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, while the most recent was Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Unlike McLaren, however, the tally of victories is far more modest. While Woking can boast 65 wins and three British world champions, Ferrari has recorded just 22 Italian victories, less than nine per cent of its total success. Alberto Ascari, the only Italian Formula 1 world champion, with two titles won with the Prancing Horse, also holds the record for Italian wins for Ferrari, with 13 victories, more than half of the Italian successes achieved by the Maranello team.
To find the last Italian driver to win a Grand Prix with Ferrari, one has to go back as far as 40 years to the 1985 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, where Michele Alboreto secured his fifth and final victory in the top category.
Why not imitate McLaren for once instead of criticising it?
When we say “the English team always favours the English driver”, often with a somewhat snobbish critical tone, what are we actually trying to achieve? It would be McLaren’s problem if it wanted to favour a loyal home-grown driver like Lando Norris, assuming this is even true. But rather than criticising, why not try to imitate them instead?
Today, Italian Ferrari drivers are excelling in the World Endurance Championship. Antonio Fuoco, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi have never been given a real chance to race in Formula 1 with Ferrari. At best, they have had to settle for an appearance in a first free practice session as reserve drivers.
Mercedes today has an Italian among its ranks: Andrea Kimi Antonelli from Bologna. The much-criticised McLaren has taken two Italian drivers under its wing: Brando Badoer, son of the much-loved Ferrari test driver of the late 1990s and early 2000s Luca Badoer, and the latest Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli, from Emilia-Romagna like Kimi Antonelli, though originally from Piacenza.
Instead of being overly enamoured with foreign solutions, why not give our compatriots a real opportunity, avoiding “relegating” them to the World Endurance Championship, a highly respectable and prestigious series but one that is certainly less visible worldwide than Formula 1. If others – the British, the Germans and so on – are willing to invest in Italian talent, why is Ferrari unable to do the same? One day, we would all like to read or hear the phrase “an Italian team that favours the Italian driver”. That would be a beautiful thing. Or wouldn’t it?
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