Ferrari on 12 October: the 2003 Suzuka championship finale
On 12 October 2003, Ferrari completed a tense championship campaign at the Japanese Grand Prix. Rubens Barrichello won at Suzuka, while Michael Schumacher finished eighth and secured his sixth Drivers’ World Championship.
The race brought Ferrari both championships and gave the date a distinctive place in the team’s history: the race winner and the newly crowned drivers’ champion were different Ferrari drivers.
October 12 in Ferrari Formula 1 history
Explore Ferrari Grand Prix results, qualifying and Sprint sessions, driver birthdays, remembrance dates and selected milestones connected with this day.
Ferrari Grands Prix held on October 12
Overall F1 Constructors' Championship decided during this Grand Prix weekend
Overall F1 Drivers' Championship decided during this Grand Prix weekend · Overall F1 Constructors' Championship decided during this Grand Prix weekend
Overall F1 Constructors' Championship decided during this Grand Prix weekend
Ferrari driver birthdays on October 12
Piero Taruffi
Piero Taruffi was born in 1906. Ferrari record: 13 Ferrari F1 starts · 1 wins · 4 podiums.
Ferrari drivers remembered on October 12
Nanni Galli
Nanni Galli died on this date in 2019.
Race, qualifying, Sprint and Ferrari driver biographical dates are generated from the locally processed F1DB dataset. Session anniversaries are shown only when an explicit session date is available in the source. Selected non-race Ferrari milestones are curated separately from Ferrari sources. Historical shared-car result rows are preserved without inventing additional Grand Prix starts.
Rubens Barrichello wins the decisive race
Rubens Barrichello’s victory delivered the strongest possible result for Ferrari in the season finale. His win helped the Scuderia secure the Constructors’ Championship and kept the race victory away from Michael Schumacher’s remaining title rival, Kimi Räikkönen.
Michael Schumacher’s eighth place supplied one point. He ended the season with 93 points, two ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, and became Formula 1’s first six-time Drivers’ World Champion.
Another Suzuka victory in 1997
The Japanese Grand Prix had also taken place on 12 October in 1997. Michael Schumacher won that race, with Eddie Irvine finishing third to put both Ferraris on the podium.
Unlike the 2003 finale, the 1997 Suzuka race did not settle the Drivers’ Championship. Its place in Ferrari history belongs to a title contest that continued to the final round.
Fuji and other entries on this date
In 2008, the Japanese Grand Prix was held at Fuji on 12 October. Kimi Räikkönen finished third and Felipe Massa seventh, adding a different Japanese venue to the date’s Ferrari record.
Explore the championship years in our Michael Schumacher F1 records. For birthdays, race results and milestones elsewhere in the year, return to the Ferrari On This Day calendar.
